Spun: Kate Bush

By Ben Hoffman

Scouted at the tender age of 16 with help from Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, Kate Bush spent the next three years getting ready to slam into the British art-rock scene in 1978. Her first single, “Wuthering Heights,” quickly cemented her place in prog and was lauded for its intelligent themes and ethereal melodies.

Bush continued to produce prolifically until 1993’s The Red Shoes, when for some reason she decided to stop for 12 years. Aerial marks her return to music, and indeed makes a fine offering to her fervent fan-base.

The first disc, “A Sea of Honey,” is a collection of works kicking around from Bush’s hiatus, and as such, it has no underlying motif. The songs on “Sea” typify the extreme and sometimes jarring diversity of Bush’s pieces. “Sea” is hard to get into but proves to be a brilliant preamble to the masterpiece second disk, “A Sky of Honey.”

“Sky” is a much more cohesive unit, flaunting its bird-chirping, child-giggling nature theme throughout. Here, you truly gets a sense of Bush’s mastery. As you follow it through its perfectly hewn flow and style, it becomes easier and easier to appreciate why Bush’s fans are still drooling for more 12 years later.

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