FEATURE:
Aerial Vision
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton
Saluting the Production on A Sky of Honey
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THERE is denying…
how generous a record Aerial is. Kate Bush’s seventh studio album was released in 2005. Her first album in twelve years, maybe there was this sense that a double album would sort of help to justify that amount of time away. Give the fans value after such a patient wait. Even though there has been a longer gap since her latest studio album, 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, and now, we are not expecting anything as full and long as Aerial! However, Kate Bush’s only double album is a masterpiece. Like Hounds of Love, is has two distinct halves. The first a selection of songs without a particular thread or throughline. Maybe Hounds of Love’s first half is about love, wonder and discovery. Aerial’s perhaps about family and the home. One can put Hounds of Love’s second side, The Ninth Wave, against Aerial’s second disc, A Sky of Honey. In terms of which is the best. I think I have done in the past! However, rather than do that here, I want to single out A Sky of Honey. I listened to it again recently. I don’t think I appreciated before how amazing the production is on it. The whole of Aerial. Bush’s manipulation of sound and use of natural sounds working together. The blend of instruments and choice of players. It is this banquet that blows the senses! I keep writing how people do not appreciate Bush as a producer. One need only listen to A Sky of Honey to realise she is one of the best producers ever. All the details and strands through that suite. My favourite might be when Bush sings with/mimics a bird (a blackbird?) on Aerial Tal! I am building from a feature about the suite I published in 2023.
I don’t think enough has been written about A Sky of Honey. In terms of its scope and brilliance. How it puts together these beautiful nine songs that are all very different. We are taken through the course of a summer’s day. We experience the joys of the dawn and down to the sunset before seeing the light rise again. I love Kate Bush’s production through her career, though I think it is possibly at its peak here. Perhaps the joys of motherhood (her son, Albert, was born in 1998) made her look more the joys of a new day. Being in the garden and having nature all around her. Although she always had admiration for birds, there is this new context in Aerial and through A Sky of Honey. There is much more than that. My highlights of A Sky of Honey is Prologue, Bertie (Albert, who replaced Rolf Harris’s vocals for the 2018 reissue of Aerial) on The Painter’s Link and the ecstatic Aerial. It takes multiple listens before you can properly absorb all the colours and shades in Bush’s palette. It is this arresting visual feast that compels you to close your eyes and imagine yourself in the songs. Even if The Guardian found some parts of A Sky of Honey cloying, they did salute Bush’s genius:
“Disc two, subtitled 'A Sky of Honey', is a suite of nine tracks which, among other things, charts the passage of light from afternoon ('Prologue') to evening ('An Architect's Dream', 'The Painter's Link') and through the night until dawn. Things get a little hairier here.
The theme of birdsong is soon wearing, and the extended metaphor of painting is laboured. But it's all worth it for the double-whammy to the solar plexus dealt by 'Nocturn' and the final, title track. In 'Nocturn', the air is pushed out of your lungs as you cower helplessly before the crescendo. 'Aerial', meanwhile, is a totally unexpected ecstatic disco meltdown that could teach both Madonna and Alison Goldfrapp lessons in dancefloor abandon. It leaves you elated, if not a little exhausted. After the damp squib that was The Red Shoes, it's clear Bush is still a force to be reckoned with”.
I am going to come to another feature soon. I imagine Kate Bush creating A Sky of Honey and starting with the concept. Maybe thinking about birdsong and using that as a foundation. The way she builds out and thought about telling a story of this summer’s day. Following the light rise, fall and come back. The production sounds is clear but not polished. There is this perfect mix which means all the instruments and vocals are perfectly placed. The way everything is crisp and clear. A step on from 1993’s The Red Shoes. A Sky of Honey sounds natural and almost analogue, though there is also this clarity and sheen that brings everything to life. It would be tempting, as producer, to throw so many sounds into the mix to maximise impact. Although there is a lot of instruments and sounds through A Sky of Honey, there is enough space in the songs. Bush knowing the perfect blend and balance. The way that she seamlessly mixes various instruments and sounds to get this incredible unity. The soundscapes she produces is intricate and also widescreen. Personal and universal. Contrasts and extremes that not everyone could perfectly match! I will ask whether A Sky of Honey is due some more investigation or visual representation. First, Secret Meeting shared their thoughts about A Sky of Honey:
“Act two, A Sky of Honey, is a standalone concept album that is meant to be listened to in its 42-minute entirety. At the time of release, following retailer ‘feedback’, EMI convinced Kate to break the track into nine separate songs, which is how they appeared on the physical release. However, she withheld Aerial from all streaming sites for five years until agreement was reached that A Sky of Honey was made available as the singular listening experience that was originally intended.
A Sky of Honey is quite possibly the greatest sequence of music ever put together and is as masterful a concept as Kate’s 1986 Hounds of Love feature, The Ninth Wave. Here though, the production is much slicker, the musicality more relaxed, and the overall work evokes a lush and beautiful landscape seldom achieved in non-visual art forms. A Sky of Honey is a joyful and organic collection of music that broods with all the romanticism of spending time at a jubilant celebration with a soulmate. It’s a dreamy meditation on the passing of a beautiful 24-hour period. Never has a 42-minute sequence of music stimulated the senses so brilliantly as to induce a mindful state, captivating attention to the passing only of the unfolding beauty of the record. It is simply impossible to focus upon anything else while this staggeringly beautiful passage of music outs.
A Sky of Honey was also the most outstanding act of Kate’s 2014 Hammersmith Apollo residencies – the centrepiece of the greatest show that I have ever witnessed. Never has a flow of music worked so well as the accompaniment to a performance art piece as put on by Kate et al on those 22 nights in September 2014.
A Sky of Honey is a conceptual masterpiece. It builds into a euphoric and deeply rewarding crescendo where ‘all the birds are laughing’ and whereby everyone is encouraged ‘come on lets join in.’ It cements Aerial as perhaps the greatest work of the world’s most astounding and important female artist, whose musical legacy remains unsurpassed by all but a tiny elite of similarly vital visionaries”.
I have written before how I think there should be some sort of visual representation of A Sky of Honey. Even though Kate Bush brought it to the stage in 2014, most people did not see it or ever will. I have written about how it would be good to get a film of The Ninth Wave. Maybe not a film, there is more that can be done with A Sky of Honey. Whether it is a playback or album stream. Not that many podcast episodes about it (or any). Dissecting the songs and discussing the amazing production. Whether a series of animations or something else, it would be great to see A Sky of Honey visualised. I would urge people to listen to A Sky of Honey as a whole. An Endless Sky of Honey. It is a remarkable listening experience! Maybe it features Kate Bush’s best production. It is almost hard to put into words why it is so engaging and moving. Every time you play A Sky of Honey, new details emerge. Sounds you might not have heard the previous time around. Bush has this ability to give her songs such nuance. A Sky of Honey never seems too long or unfocused. Every track has its place. Credit too to Del Palmer for his engineering brilliance. However, it is Bush’s production vision and instinct that makes A Sky of Honey one of the best things she ever put her name to. You are brought into this warm, beautiful and beguiling sonic world. One with warm and slinky beats. Birdsong and air. Something darker and more twisted at times. The renaissance guitar and importance of the piano. The exquisite string work from the London Metropolitan Orchestra. Despite the fact Rolf Harris appeared on the 2005 original, he cannot damage the reputation of A Sky of Honey. Bertie’s vocals sound more commanding and natural that Harris’s efforts. I would love for A Sky of Honey to find new lease. Maybe a short film or people talking about it on a podcast. I wanted to show my affection and admiration for…
AN immaculate suite of songs.