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Kate Bush

Aerial (Columbia)

Nov 23, 2005 at 4:00 am

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Although many artists should leave twelve-year gaps between albums, Kate Bush isn't one of them. But the double-CD Aerial — her first release since 1993's The Red Shoes — is worth the wait. The first disc is titled "A Sea of Honey" and is largely a quiet study of domesticity populated by her son, mathematicians, Elvis and even laundry on the erotically charged "Mrs. Bartolozzi" ("My blouse wrapping itself around your trousers/My skirt floating up around my waist/Washing machine/Washing machine"). On the second CD, a conceptual suite named "A Sky of Honey," nothing happens except the passing of another day traced through birdsong; Bush's ethereal voice actually morphs with field recordings. Of the two, "Sky" deserves more reflection, its atmospheric soundscape offering a psychological depth "Sea" requires words to achieve.