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The Return of Kate! (No, not this one, nor this one, but a greater -- no offense intended to the others.) Let's get a couple of things straight, right now: This afternoon, however, I am giddy to the point of bouncing. The most anticipated birthday present, with which I am crediting everyone in my family who has given me money for my birthday (yesterday), is currently in my CD player. (The present isn't really all that expensive, but I like to think that a few dollars from everyone went into its purchase.) Today, in the United States, Kate Bush's first new album in twelve years, Aerial, is released. (It was released everywhere else in the world yesterday, ON my birthday, but I'm in the 'States, where nothing makes sense and nearly everyone is stupid.) To be fair, I have not been waiting for this album's release for twelve years. It was only about twelve years ago that I had my first real encounter with Ms. Bush's work, the result of a conversation with a Yale senior whom I found attractive when I was an incredibly scattered freshman. Kate inspires a certain strange devotion among those who admire her work, and I was quickly drawn in beneath her spell, amassing all of her major commercial releases and devouring them as best I could, stuffing huge chunks of material into my brain over the span of probably the following year, or perhaps two. In the subsequent years, I spent hours listening to these albums repeatedly, committing their melodic content to memory, attempting to decipher their lyrics, analysing the musical soundscapes she'd created even to the point of attempting to transcribe -- using different coloured inks for different synth patches, rhythm tracks, guitar lines and choral parts -- The Ninth Wave, the second part of Hounds of Love for an ill-fated stage production. I wander away from her songs for months at a time, occasionally realising it's been more than a year since I heard a certain album, and then, I return, only to discover and be transported by something new (my last listen to The Dreaming, which I did not love at first hearing, reduced me to tears as I sat in my office listening to "Night of the Swallow", "All the Love", and "Houdini" and left me marvelling at the vast expanse of claustrophobia, violence and escape that is "Get Out of My House" -- I could publish my thoughts on her collected works in a considerably longer format, but not today). I realised that today was the release date for this new work (whose lead-off single, "King of the Mountain", an electronic reggae-tinged contemplation of society's reluctance to accept the decline and demise of great public figures, with Elvis Presley and Citizen Kane as metonymy, has been on my iPod for more than a month now) shortly after I realised I'd forgotten to vote this morning -- assuming I'm even registered -- and immediately clarified my priorities as I set about finding the purveyor of CDs nearest to my office. Almost immediately, I declared a lunch break, dashing out of the building to buy an album for which I apparently could scarcely wait another minute, and discovered a Borders on my way to FYE. I bounded into the CD audio section, located the new release almost immediately and excitedly flipped it between my fingers while listening to the track from it that was playing on the store's sound system. I was scarcely able to restrain myself from bouncing with the excitement of a recently toilet-trained child who needs to urinate as I sought the cashier, stood in line, paid, ran through traffic back to the Sony building, grabbed lunch in the cafeteria and zipped back to my desk for a first listen. Reviews of the new work seem almost consistently good, praising Kate for her return and her return to form, particularly on the second disc of this double album; my own initial response is one of apprehensive ecstasy. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts as I listen to it more. Thus far, I'm agape at some tracks and less certain of others, though my attention is being shared with other tasks. I will say this, though: It has been a long time since I've bought a CD that honestly excited me the way this one does, and it is as though with Kate's new release, my own creativity is re-sparked. I have reached a milestone age; one of my major musical influences and hero(in)es has returned to work. Now is the time when I shall return my focus to writing, recording, producing and performing my own work. I had forgotten that there were ideas I wanted to express in the medium. Ms. Bush has reminded me. And that may really be the best birthday present ever. (Thanks, Kate.) Having remembered what I am here to do, perhaps it's time I began. (In the meantime, hie thee unto the official website, www.katebush.com for a preview and further information, and google the terms "Kate Bush" AND "Aerial" for some fascinating articles and reviews.) All the love,
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