Kate Bush — new single and album

I am listening to the new Kate Bush single, King of the Mountain. This is very exciting because her last album came out in 1993 — clearly bands like Nine Inch Nails are mere amateurs as far as releasing long-awaited albums is concerned. So Aerial will be her next album, released later this year, and the first since The Red Shoes 12 years ago. As if to make up for the long wait, Aerial will be a double CD.

King of the Mountain is a beautiful, atmospheric song. It has a slow yet jaunty rhythm, and not too much of the ’70s prog rock influence that occasionally mars her music. Actually, the rhythm has a strange slow calypso feel to it. And her plaintive voice is as unique as ever.

Update: You lucky Americans can get King of the Mountain at the iTunes Music Store:

It just occurs to me that King of the Mountain is what you become after you’ve finished Running Up That Hill. An echo of an earlier era in Kate’s music? Or just coincidence? Only time, and hours of painstaking lyrical over-analysis, will tell.

If you’re feeling flush, you can order the special Japanese CD plus DVD release of Aerial at Amazon.com. It’s due to be released on 1 November and may well have some extra goodies, as Japanese releases often do. For everyone else, the plain old Aerial double CD comes out later in November. Expect more from me on this subject in a month or so.