Kate Bush has always bridged the cozy with the stratospheric. As the title of her first work in 12 years suggests, the two-disc set Aerial strays a little further into the ether than some of her previous albums.
While the sweepingly operatic second disc seems to be an ode to a sunset, infused with meditations on art and love, the first disc contains more grounded tracks. “Pi” is a character study of a mathematician, not a tribute to the number itself, and “Joanni” (an ode to a certain visionary French warrior that rings a little off-key with our times) is offset by “Mrs. Bartolozzi,” a vignette about doing the laundry. Even the song’s ambitious arrangements — which combine Bush’s supple piano and adventuresome synth, the London Metropolitan Orchestra, Hammond organs, and didgeridoos — are kept down to earth by hooky melodies and folksy intimacy. And the most moving number is the homiest — “Bertie,” a song about her son, in which her still astonishing voice swells with motherly devotion.
This article appears in Nov 23-29, 2005.