7 Dec 2009 by Chris     No Comments    Posted under: Entertainment

Albums of the Decade: No.14

Aerial by Kate Bush

“Washing machine, slooshy sloshy slooshy sloshy, get that dirty shirty clean”
eMusic 100 Best Albums of the Decade: No.92
Uncut 150 Albums of the Decade: No.18

Her first album for over twelve years, 2005′s Aerial is in many respects as good as anything Kate Bush has ever done. She actually did spend that long making the album, on and off, but only because she had a son, and had to fit in the writing and recording around that. People would prefer a more interesting explanation, but that’s just the way it was.

The album is alternately beautiful (A Coral Room) and just plain bonkers (Mrs. Bartolozzi), but we wouldn’t want Kate any other way. I must have listened to Aerial twenty or thirty times in five years, and it becomes more wonderful on every listen. It’s got Rolf Harris on it! It’s got a duet with some birdsong! It’s got a song where she recites Pi to about a hundred decimal places! It’s got a song about a bloody washing machine! Kitty Empire wrote that Aerial is “the most female album in the world, ever” which does make me wonder about the female psyche.

• Albums of the Decade: No.15
• Albums of the Decade: No.16
• Albums of the Decade: No.17
• Albums of the Decade: No.18
• Albums of the Decade: No.19
• Albums of the Decade: No.20

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