Kate Bush

The musical art of Kate Bush is not everyone’s cup of tea, but for her fans and any open-minded newcomers who happen to discover it, Aerial is a beautifully crafted re-entry after the 12-year gap since her previous album. Bush is an artisan of sonic atmospheres and poetic lyrics, and she has filled this two-CD release to the brim with richly deployed piano, strings, synthesizers, subtle percussion, occasionally kick-ass guitar, thrumming didgeridoo and bird calls, all in support of her uniquely dramatic voice as it weaves through melodies that wind between the notes of the instruments. The two discs, A Sea of Honey and A Sky of Honey, present suites of songs that celebrate the joys of domestic harmony and the beauty of the sensual world, respectively, with quite a bit of interplay between the two. Jazz bassist Eberhard Weber adds especially lovely underpinnings on “Sunset,” which shifts from somber meditation to loping samba as “They go all the way up to the top of the night.” And in “š (Pi)” Bush proves that even an endless string of numerals can be suffused with emotional nuance if sung with conviction. Worth it.