KATE BUSH / Aerial (2005)

Kate took some time off after The Red Shoes (1993); it ended up being twelve years, but she came back with a double album that's structured similar to her masterpiece, Hounds of Love (1985), in that it's split into two distinct halves.
Disc One (A Sea of Honey) is a collection of eclectic and mesmerising songs about life and people. It's often cryptic and has many hidden depths. Contrast that structure with the simplicity and beauty of Kate's slightly deepened vocal delivery and you'll discover one of the album's great strengths.
Disc Two (A Sky of Honey) has nine tracks but needs to be experienced and appraised as a whole piece, like The Ninth Wave. It's a complex and multi-layered arrangement that tells the story of one twenty-four hour period, a single summer's day, which may take months or even years to fully appreciate.

Songs of Note: King of the Mountain; How to be Invisible

4½ spiders of time out of 5