nightmaster

Saw this while browsing on Amazons' UK site.....


From the Label-
Aerial marks the long awaited return of Kate Bush--one of the UK's most unique, respected and influential figures. The double album, Kate's first since 1993's The Red Shoes, presents the perfect opportunity to reintroduce Kate to her global fanbase and introduce her work to a whole new audience. The album will be released as a double CD in special gatefold card packaging (plus 24 page booklet).

Hollowgen

i've always liked kate bush's collaborations with PG, but have never delved into her stuff. where would one start? and what is she like?

nightmaster

Kate is an innovator- she definitely influenced MANY artists who have come along since, Tori Amos definitely seemed like a new Kate when she released her first few CDs. A voice sometimes incredible and sometimes an oddity, theatrical, she delves into different genres of music and creates blends that are distinctive and alluring. As for her PG collaberations, if that's all the Kate you know then you're missing out on some wonderful stuff.

If I were to start I'd pick up The Whole Story which is a retrospective up to the Hounds Of Love album. After that I'd buy The Sensual World, Hounds Of Love and The Red Shoes, though I'm sure many Kate fans would have different lists than mine.

rockinbrian19

Kate has also got a new web site in the works. It will be fully launched on Nov. 7. You can hear a snippet of the first single "King of the Mountain" on the web site now. The new web site is:

www.katebush.co.uk

Will be good to hear some new Kate.

Ayre

"The Dreaming" has always been my favorite. Very edgy. Not as silly as "Never Forever". Great from beginning to end.

"Hounds of Love" offers the best combination of accessibility and artistry. She got some good airplay from the single "Running Up That Hill".

"Never Forever" has a quirky 80's sound effect feel to it. Some really great pieces. Army Dreamers, Egypt and Breathing.

"The Red Shoes" was a dissapointment with its lack of artistic vision and apparent commercial goals.

I would say go for "Hounds of Love", great entry into her work.

Hollowgen

thanks. i'm going to look for the remastered "hounds of love" album. it seems pretty arty and "dark"

Hollowgen

any of you dudez have the box set "this woman's work" and if so, care to share what you think? it seems expensive, but i've found a few places that have it for a reasonable price. i saw it mentioned on AMG that the japanese edition has the best sound & fidelity. i've also read something about a reissued version, blah blah blah. how to choose?!

Supermallet

I have the box set. They use the British CDs, which sound better than the current American ones. The big exception is Hounds of Love, which got remastered a few years ago. I replaced my box set version with the remaster, which also has remastered bonus tracks.

Other than the British discs, the big draw for the box set is two CDs of bonus material. Not all of it is great, but some of the tracks are classic. These would include live tracks from her 1979 tour (which, so far, has been her last) that sound awesome, as well as the new vocal for Wuthering Heights, Experiment IV, and a song called Ken that was written for a TV show.

I bought it years ago and have gotten a lot of use out of it since, so I'd say it's worth it. However, I heard that EMI might remaster the rest of her catalogue when Aerial came out, but no word on that lately.

Meanwhile, King of the Mountain is amazing, as is the b-side, a cover of Sexual Healing. I cannot wait for the full album. Already got it pre-ordered.

atlantamoi

After the compilation and "Hounds of Love", I'd suggest "The Dreaming". Kate is wonderful and has taken too much time off. Especially after the stinky "Red Shoes" album.

Supermallet

I enjoyed The Red Shoes.

For a beginner, I would actually suggest just hearing her albums in the order they came out. Her work gets progressively more arty and challenging as it goes on, so I think the first two albums are the best way to ease in to her music.

Hollowgen

i appreciate the info. i'm eager to check this work out!

atlantamoi

Good news. This new album is sweet. It's not frontloaded with the best tunes. It's fairly yummy all the way through both discs. Mostly low-key with a few songs containing some blips and beeps. Overall, if you are a Kate fan it's pretty much a guarantee you'll like this. (I'm listening to the last part of disc two and it's starting to pick up some beats... think I like disc two better).

The only thing I didn't like so far was her singing too long about a washing machine on "Mrs. Bartolozzi". Just annoyed me.

atlantamoi

Admit it, guys, she's a genius <---- (that's the headline! not me!)

Kitty Empire
Sunday October 30, 2005
The Observer


Kate Bush
Aerial
(EMI)
£14.99

Kate Bush means a lot to a lot of people. There are gay men who thrill to her rococo sensibilities, who repay her early endorsement of their sexuality with worship. There are straight men who fancied her in her 1980s leotard and found the songs fetching, too. For me, Kate Bush was always a trump card when the tiresome 'question' of female artistic genius came up.

There are many male music fans out there - and just a smattering of male music journalists - who believe quite matter of factly that Damon Albarn wrote Elastica's first album; that Kurt Cobain penned all Courtney Love's songs; that artistic production is self-evidently a guy thing. Before disgust stopped me getting dragged into these skirmishes, I had a ready arsenal of Girl Greats - Patti Smith, Bjork, Nina Simone, Delia Derbyshire, Polly Harvey, and so on. And yet, there would often be some caveat why genius eluded my candidates (ripped off Dylan etc). Until we would get to Kate. Female genius? Kate Bush. End of.

Aerial, the first Kate Bush album in a young lifetime (12 years), re-establishes the fact. It is extraordinary - jaw-dropping, no less. It's also tearjerking, laugh-out-loud funny, infuriating, elegiac, baffling, superb and not always all that great. Her beats are dated, for instance; unchanged since the Eighties. For a technological innovator with the freedom of her own studio, Bush's whole soundbed really could do with an airing. And there's a sudden penchant for heady Latin rhythms here that sits a little awkwardly, even for this enthusiastic borrower of world music.

More problematically, however, Bush's whimsies have never been quite so amplified. If you thought the young Bush prancing around to Bronte was a little de trop, this album is not for you. There's a song about a little brown jug and one about a washing machine (both, though, are really about other things). There are several passages where Bush sings along to birdsong, and one where she laughs like a lunatic. Rolf Harris - Rolf Harris! - has a big cameo.

But Aerial succeeds because it's all there for a reason. And because the good stuff is just so sublime. 'King of the Mountain', Bush's Elvis-inspired single, is both a fine opener and a total red herring. Bush's juices really get going on 'Pi', a sentimental ode to a mathematician, audacious in both subject matter and treatment. The chorus is the number sung to many, many decimal places. It's closely followed by a gushing ode to Bush's son, Bertie, that's stark and medieval-sounding. The rest of disc one (aka A Sea of Honey) sets a very high bar for disc two, with the Joan of Arc-themed 'Joanni' and the downright poppy 'How to Be Invisible' raising the hair on your arms into a Mexican wave.

Disc two, subtitled 'A Sky of Honey', is a suite of nine tracks which, among other things, charts the passage of light from afternoon ('Prologue') to evening ('An Architect's Dream', 'The Painter's Link') and through the night until dawn. Things get a little hairier here.

The theme of birdsong is soon wearing, and the extended metaphor of painting is laboured. But it's all worth it for the double-whammy to the solar plexus dealt by 'Nocturn' and the final, title track. In 'Nocturn', the air is pushed out of your lungs as you cower helplessly before the crescendo. 'Aerial', meanwhile, is a totally unexpected ecstatic disco meltdown that could teach both Madonna and Alison Goldfrapp lessons in dancefloor abandon. It leaves you elated, if not a little exhausted. After the damp squib that was The Red Shoes, it's clear Bush is still a force to be reckoned with.

The problem, though, with female genius - for many men at least - is that very frequently it is not like male genius. And with its songs about children, washing machines going 'slooshy sloshy', Joan of Arc, Bush's mother, not to mention the almost pagan sensuality that runs through here like a pulse, Aerial is, arguably, the most female album in the world, ever. There's an incantation to female self-effacement that rewrites Shakespeare's weird sisters: 'Eye of Braille/ Hem of anorak/ Stem of wallflower/ Hair of doormat'. Even the one about maths is touchy-feely. But the artistry here is so dizzying, the ambition and scope so vast, that even the deafest, most inveterate misogynist could not fail to acknowledge it. Genius. End of.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/revie...604281,00.html

___________

When Tori Amos came on the scene and got massive radio play and press I remember being pissed off that it was her over Kate. Kate is so much better. I don't dislike Tori Amos now, but after all these years I don't think she holds a candle to Kate.

BTW, good luck listening to "A Coral Room" w/out crying. A warning

Numanoid

No kidding. When people used to try to get me to like Tori Amos I'd say, "What's the point, we already have one Kate Bush."

Sweet Baby James

atlantamoi, thanks for posting your thoughts on the new CD. It's hard to believe that it's been 12 years since her last release. I cannot wait until I can get my hands on this disc. Now for my ulterior motive- I expect a vote from you next week in the Draft thread. I'm the only one to pick a Kate Bush album("Hounds of Love"), which is my favorite all-time album.

Supermallet

I've been listening to this non-stop for two days now. An absolutely mesmerizing work.

Perkinsun Dzees

Wow, I didn't even know this was out until I came across a review on the Net. How did this sneak under the radar for so long? I thought RED SHOES was a disappointment and am glad she's come out with something that sounds like a return to form.

Hollowgen

i'm enjoying it. i think it drags a tad on the second disc, but it definitely has some interesting production.

rdclark

Here's a sad commentary on something or other. I happened to be passing a Circuit City yesterday and thought I'd run in and pick up "Aerial."

Not only did they not have it, they didn't even have it in their computer.

I should know better than to go in that sinkhole of depravity.

RichC

Tscott

Best Buy had it advertised for $14.99 in the Sunday paper. I'd guess they'd have it in stock. I bought mine at Media-Play (I had $10 in replay bucks to use) and they had a dozen or more copies that I saw.

My Circuit City has done some stupid stuff in the past, like advertise a new release CD and only get one copy in on Tuesday. I avoid them now unless the sale price is on a mega-hit (so they'll stock more than one copy) and too good to pass up.

ken_572002

Not at all...that would be a perfect start, for the uninitiated. You can also add Aerial to the list, as it is an incredible album as well (although, the 'washing machine' song gets on your nerves after a while).

Davy Mack

It's phenomenal! My fiancee even likes it and she normally doesn't dig Kate.
Tori, Fiona, Alanis, Sinead move over. The wizared is back. School's in.

kvrdave

I remember the 90s but I have no idea who Kate Bush is. What was her last album of note? What typd of music is this?

Ginwen

She was more in the 80's than the 90's (she only had one album in the 90s). It's Kate Bush music--not really exactly like anything else I know. I think she sort of had more of a cult following (her biggest solo US hit, Running Up That Hill, only got to #30), so it wouldn't be surprising if you hadn't heard her. She did a song (Don't Give Up) with Peter Gabriel (she was also on Games Without Frontiers, but Don't Give Up is more of a co-lead vocal), so it's possible you might have heard her there, since I think that was a pretty popular song.

Davy Mack

In Europe she was (and is) huge.