AERIAL

Though Kate Bush had created an absolute classic in the form of Hounds of Love, her two subsequent releases (The Sensual World and The Red Shoes) both lacked something - the latter, in particular, seemed to have been badly compromised by an attempt to push the music in a more commercial direction - and twelve years of silence followed as Kate withdrew to recover her creative energies and be a full-time mother for a while. Aerial is a triumphant return to form which comes across almost as Hounds of Love part 2; like Hounds of Love, half the album consists of individual songs whilst the other half is a conceptual suite which includes a similarly wide range of influences (with a bit more Mediterranean music this time around) and a similar tendency to drop in voice samples for theatrical effect.

On the whole, I wouldn't say it's as good as Hounds of Love, and there are a few points where Kate seems to be retreading old ground, but it's still a very good album. Kate has clearly been paying attention to developments in music during her self-imposed hiatus, since it never feels like a nostalgia exercise in recapturing her old sound and instead does a great job of applying two decades of musical evolution to the style of Hounds of Love. If, like me, you found Kate's career went a little off the rails after that album, you'll find Aerial puts it right back on track.