Right from the opening piano chords and her moaning voice, one can sense the weariness and sadness. But when you focus on the words it deepens into a song of agonizing beauty. BERTOLOZZI is a lovely song about a woman doing the washing. I LOVE how she manipulates her voice when singing “Sweeee-eee-eee-eeeeet kisses” and the following “Threeeee-eeeee-eeee-eeee wishes.” On a tangent, I remembered the film CONTACT and how the information in the message was given in numbers, because the aliens knew that any civilization smart enough to know what π is, would be able to figure out the code!īERTIE, a love song to her 7 year old son, is a startling track only in that it is a Renaissance ballad with period instruments! It is a true Olde English Madrigal. And this flashes before us in a visceral way listening to her crooning and caressing the numbers. It is said that numbers-well, math-is the universal language. The tenderness with which she sings them replicates the love and lure they hold for this man, so numbers are the language here. Kate singing numbers takes the place of singing words. Either way, the man is, as she says, obsessed with numbers. On the track π, she sings the calculation to the one hundred and sixteenth decimal place! Who else in “pop” music would dare to do that? (I think of the old joke about anyone who is a wonderful singer: “She could sing the phone book and make it sound good!”) It is a simple premise: a sort of “love” song to either a smart mathematician or a savant. And a little shocking to see an old Elvis, which makes us reflect on what would have happened if he had not died, what he would look like, what he would have done with his career, etc. His old jumpsuit leaps into his arms and the two are overcome with joy to see each other again. He is old now, with a gut and white hair still styled in his pompadour and accompanying pork chop sideburns. The jumpsuit ends up high in the mountains, tinged with pink and red in a lovely effect, and finally to its old owner: there is Elvis, sledding down a hill on Rosebud. It blows by other clothes on a wash line, and the shirts try to reach up and touch “The King” (like screaming female fans at one of his concerts) but can’t go too far since they are clothes pinned to the line. His closet opens up by itself and one of his old glittery jumpsuits comes alive and dances itself out of the closet, through the house, and onto the wind. It shows a mansion like Kane’s, but it is supposed to be Elvis’ house. And the only way out of it is to go “away.” It has something to say about the price of fame as well-that it is a very lonely affair, with menace waiting ahead. The song is partially addressed to Elvis who may be “out there” somewhere, sad, lonely-riding a sled named Rosebud, thus likening the legend of the King of Rock and Roll to Charles Foster Kane, CITIZNE KANE, lonely and alone in his mansion. She incorporates chilly, edgy wind sounds but in the middle of the song, they are low rumblings of wind, as though being blown through a small crack in a window. The opening track KING OF THE MOUNTAIN is spooky and swooping, with a vaguely reggae-beat. Each one tells a story, and these songs certainly do. She means that they are songs that stand on their own, independent of anything else-separate from an overriding concept. So yes, much like "The Hounds of Love," let's start with the first side or disc one: A SEA OF HONEY, is a disc of “Kate songs,” as she herself calls them. After 12 years-yes, TWELVE YEARS-since her last release, Kate has finally released a follow-up to "The Red Shoes" but after so long, can it really be called a follow-up? She took time off to have a child and live her life, but I imagine what her mind cooked up during that hiatus and the backlog of ideas and songs has expressed itself in the double CD release "Aerial." And we have in each disc, a replica of "The Hounds of Love." One disc is a collection of Kate songs, and the other is a concept suite like "The Ninth Wave."
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