Stan Deely on Aeriel – A Sky of Honey
AERIAL – A SKY OF HONEY
I was fairly impressed with this album/song suite on the first few listens. I found it nice and relaxing. More acoustic and piano-y than a lot of her work. Then I started to get a bit bored with its pastoralism and thought it’s a bit boring and tasteful for my liking.
Midway through reviewing I went to see my childhood idols Gang of Four play live and they were amazing. Since then I have been on a bit of a post punk jag and this album doesn’t really fit it with where I’m at at the moment but I have bit my lip and given it a few more plays – just to get it finished with.
I think I’m going to give the Directors Cut a swerve and review 50 Words for Snow before the end of the year. As Dave Amitri will attest immersing oneself in one artist’s work one album a month can seriously impair one’s enjoyment of their work.
PRELUDE and PROLOGUE
After a brief intro from a child’s voice we have Kate on solo piano and background hum. A soundscape. Nice four chord descending refrain. Kate’s voice sounds great in the unadorned, setting. Not much happens but is has time to breathe. Gets quite hypnotic. Sets the tone for what is to come. Wtth a minute to go, we have some drums. Not sure it needed it. A good start.
AN ARCHITECTS DREAM
Continues the sad dreamy tone. A third person narrative describing a painter painting . The line ‘an architects dream’ describes what the observer feels about the painting rather than an overall description of what the song is about. Dreamy soundscape. Theres a bit of echo and reverb making the sound deep,warm and mellow. The music is largely static and variety comes from the vocals. Kate sounds very good here. She’s In command and able to hold the narrative.
THE PAINTERS LINK
More orchestra and piano. Very mid 1970’s vibe and then a short voice over by Rolf Harris playing the artist and then Kate. A link to the sunset. Pleasant enough –
SUNSET
At this point the punk rocker in me is starting to think “This is all getting a bit too pastoral for my liking” but she varies it up a bit. Still Kate’s piano upfront but features other instruments. Nimble bass and nice ensemble interplay. Describes the sunset. One could argue it’s a bit overlong. Ends with a kind of Irish mariachi style jig with hints of Spaghetti Western. It could almost be pastoral acid house and thiere more of this to come.
AERIAL TAL/SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN
Another full band piece describing watching the monents after sunset. Has a yearning kind lazy jazz vibe. Gary Brooker on organ and backing vocals – almost a duet. The song on this disc that sounds most like it could have fitted on the Sea of Honey disc. Reminds me a bit of Donald Fagen’s New Frontier. Possibly my favourite tune on a Sky of Honey. .
NOCTURNE
Describing skinny dipping in the sea at night. A soft dance track. Reminds me of the Beloved. A bit repetitive and meh but saved by Kate’s singing which is top notch as ever. I really like her singing on the last few albums. I think sometime around The Dreaming or Hounds of Love she found a register which enabled her to really emote. Quite a sexy song. As well as the Beloved, reminds me of the Queen of Chill out – Beth Orton and quite Pink Floydy as well. A bit overlong but she is like going for epic I think. Insistent groove ,a bit like some of the Hound of Love tunes. Someone could probably make a Madonna style dance remix album but I don’t think Kate would be into that. At then end she gets a bit over the top about the quality of the light in the morning. Begs a question? Is this her Sgt Pepper – her acid album?
AERIAL
Repetitive circular refrain almost Kraftwerkian and then a doof doof four to the floor takes over. Now we have the full on dance experience. The sense of urgency and even panic in her vocals recalls the drowning narrator on the Ninth Wave song suite. Sounds of laughter. Prog rock excelsis. Laughter and bird song recalls Pink Floyd One for the stoners? Not sure if that kind of culture goes on in todays streaming world. A bit of rawk guitar played by Danny McIntosh who does a passable imitation of Beck, Clapton etc.
Ends as it started with brid song. A prog rock journey. Gateway drug to this sort of thing. Stoner rock – Does this stil happen
9 songs in 42 minutes but really 3 of them are short interlude so we are talking about 6 in 38 For one raised on the Ramones and the Clash (and previous to that David Bowie and the Who the songs are bit long and self indulgent but the sound is pretty good baby
SUMMATION
Have it taken me on a journey? Yes, I suppose but it felt a bit forced. I can see that others would really love this but it’s a bit too polished for me. I am yearning back to the sound of Never for Ever when there was more space in the music and it seemed less polished and quirkier.
Once again feel free to tell me what I am missing? Anyone see her do this live? And how did it come over? Should I listen to the live CD?. Does it illuminate or add much to the album experience?
For me, this ranks at least on a par with The Ninth Wave as Kate’s magnum opus. From the first listen, I found it intensely engaging, immersive, quirky and thrilling – all the qualities that I adore about her. I didn’t and don’t have to be ‘on’ anything for it to transport me completely into her vision and her orbit.
I was lucky enough to see the live performance twice, and I have to say that whilst already beguiled by the studio version, the live interpretation enhanced it even higher, with sublime visuals both on the screen backdrop and on stage – a tree through a piano! A puppet Totoro! Bird masks! KATE TAKING FLIGHT! – and fantastic individual and collective performances.
I would say yes of course, it’s absolutely worth listening to the live album. You’ll obviously miss what I have hinted at above, but you do get a sense of the audience’s rapt attention and reactions. But a word of warning: there is an addition to the live show/recording that’s not on the original ASOH…Tawny Moon, written by Kate for her son Albert to sing. Young Bertie is in fact an integral member of the ‘K Fellowship’, and we must offer our eternal thanks to him for encouraging Mum to do the whole Before The Dawn project in the first place. The song isn’t actually that bad, and he sings it well enough in a musical theatre kinda way…but it does remain quite jarring in the context of the piece. Forgivably self-indulgent, I’d suggest.
Overall, then, you could say I’m rather a fan of this wonderful, and wonderfully idiosyncratic album.
You saw it TWICE? I hate you!
So much hate for the ones you love…😉
I suppose it’s not for everyone, but I totally love this whole suite and as time has gone one I find myself regarding it as one of her top tier masterpieces. (I still feel Wuthering Heights has the shock of novelty and precocious talent which will mean no-one, not even Bush herself, will ever better it, but this is pretty, pretty close).
Is it too pastoral, too twee, too gentle? Yes, I can’t disagree with that criticism. If your head isn’t in that space then nothing is going to persuade you to like this. The bit where she sings along with the bird-song is almost as daft and pretentious as the bit where she puts on a fake laugh (again… to bird song…)… and I wouldn’t blame anyone for that being a turn-off.
But pastoral/ proggy/ gentle is where my head lies a LOT of the time, and I see this piece as following in the grand tradition of stuff like The Garden of Jane Delawney (Trees), Grantchester Meadows (Floyd) and Hergest Ridge (Mike Oldfield), with the added kick (literally) as it gets somewhat dance-y towards the end.
Controversially, I even prefer the original version before it was de-Rolfed, as the presence of that convicted sex pest reminds us weirdly of how flawed we can all be at times in accepting people at face value and not spotting their dark underside. That said, it’s understandable she wanted to remove him from the recording.
I think the whole sound of the piece is really warm and inviting as well. Maybe a bit too lush, but conversely to what you have said I can hear plenty of space in it among the piano, double bass and percussion bubbling through it.
Overall, I think this just speaks to me, and I fell in love with it as soon as I heard it. It aims high and isn’t afraid of being big and ridiculous and pretentious. At the time it seemed like a late career masterpiece, but I think she was only in her forties at the time? I think she still has some juice in the tank to surprise us even now. 50 Words For Snow was good but not great, but I think (hope) there will be more to come.
Very nice. You describe it perfectly.
Nice review. Confess I never really got this until I saw it live. I had no idea what she was going to play apart from the 9th Wave clue beforehand with her in water.
So this started after the intermission and it drew me in completely. Absolutely mesmeric and beautiful. And subsequently I love it and think it’s the best thing she has done since Hounds of Love (ok not much since). And Aerial ranks in my top 3 Kate albums behind The Dreaming and Hounds of Love
I love it to bits.
At the risk of bringing things down, I’ve got Sunset as one of my funeral songs. At the end, curtains close. “we live on in comets and stars’, then the speed up at the end gives the proceedings a ‘New Orleans’ feel. What’s not to like?
Also, kudos on timing for your 50 Words for Snow review.
I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone that I don’t like it…Somewhere In Between is the only track I find slightly better than tolerable. But very few- if any – artists have never disappointed me as a fan, and if others love it – I’m happy for them. As long as they don’t make me listen to it again! 🙂
Aerial (especially the Sky Of Honey) is up there with Hounds Of Love as my favourite Kate Bush album.
Being someone who is rather fond of the “proggy” / pastoral stuff, I loved it from the day of release. It’s an album that I listen to in a quiet room (or on headphones) and really immerse myself in. It’s one that I still play regularly.
I was lucky enough to see the live show and whilst I agree that the visuals did add to the experience, I actually prefer the studio version – not exactly sure why, but maybe because its just one of those bits music that suits being played in all its pristine glory (not sure that makes any sense, but what the hell).
Erm, isn’t Aerial a double album? I admit that no-one listens to the other disc, but still. Or did I miss a memo about doing each disc in a different month?
You did
Gotcha. A strange way to go about things I must say.
I thought it was the right thing to do as they are actually 2 separate albums collected in a double. A Sky of Honey and A Sea of Honey, they are quite different from each other. Personally I like them both, but will reach for one or the other rather than playing the whole thing.
Also her catalogue s very short so it spins it out a bit further. 50 Words for Snow is also a double but clearly one theme and I guess will be treated as one album
It’s all very confusing to a simple country boy like me.
Agree in many ways. A Sky of Honey is almost minimalist in its simplicity, both musically and lyrically, while A Sea of Honey is more like the songwriting we expect of Kate. On early listens, I even felt that it lacked ambition for that. Those twin notes between which she warbles singing ‘In a sea of honey’, I mean, ‘honey’ does not have 8 syllables! Again, lyrically ‘It’s gonna be so good now / It’s gonna be so good’ or ‘It was just so beautiful’ three times over. It’s not groundbreaking is it? Whereas A Sea of Honey feels like proper songs. Yet that soon shifted and I found myself loving them both equally, and it’s up there with the best; she is the only artist to have 3 albums in my Top 30. I do play them back-to-back, but that’s typical form for how I listen to music anyway.