eight (theme: fusion)

[amethysting.livejournal.com]

Sunset
Kate Bush
Aerial
2005

Okay.  So I have like a bazillion things to say, and I don't know where to start...a list seems necessary.

1. Fusion.  Dude, like I said, when I saw the theme, I was like Jill totally picked this theme with a song in mind...and I have NO IDEA what to post.  It was like sitting at a wobbly desk for an exam you studied really hard for.  You're nervous when you sit down, but then you nearly throw up when you read the one and only question, because you have NO IDEA what the answer is.  

I liked having to think about this theme.  It was the throbbing thing at the back of my mind.  I found myself listening to every song wondering if it could be the one.  And then...

2. I remembered this song.  Before I can get to the song, I have to start with the album.  When this came out in 2005, it was Kate Bush's first studio album in thirteen years.  People were excited. 

My Dad had introduced me to Kate Bush when I first discovered Tori Amos.  He was like, "Yeah, well, whatever Tori Amos is doing...Kate Bush did it first."  I was resistant, as teenagers sometimes are, and listened to "Wuthering Heights" with only passing interest.  Okay, I have to preface this next part by admitting that up until two days ago, I had only listened to Aerial...well probably not even once.  I found "Sunset" and concluded that it was the only listenable track. 

I have an inkling that my Dad felt the same way, because he bought the album and then just passed it along, without much enthusiasm.  The liner notes feature close up pictures of Ms. Bush's toddler son and some of his original artwork.  This, of course, immediately impacted what I thought about the album, before I had even listened to it. Track 4 of disc 1 (yes, it is a double album) kind of put me off right away.  In "Mrs. Bartolozzi" Ms. Bush sings about clothes in a washing machine.  Some of the lyrics include: "Slooshy sloshy slooshy sloshy/Get that dirty shirty clean/Everything clean and shiny/Washing machine/Washing machine."  I feel like I am cheating by talking about another song, BUT you just need to understand how...unimpressed I was with this album six years ago.

3. Let's introduce: the headphones.  I was so excited to think of "Sunset" as my perfect answer to the fusion conundrum and then was doubly excited when I thought, how interesting to listen to it with the headphones.  I have always liked this song, but it was like I was REALLY hearing it...every instrument and shift in the music, for the first time.

The lyrics are simple, but I think they are lovely.  The sunset as honeycomb ..."A sky of honey/Whose shadow, long and low/Is slipping out of wet clothes" and "Who knows who wrote that song of Summer/That blackbirds sing at dusk" (incidentally, the soundwave on the album cover is blackbird song, and it is a recurring theme throughout the album).  

I love that this song starts with the piano.  Then that kind of jazzy element comes in.  I love how KB stretches out the words "sea" and "sky" and "honey"; they sound almost like incantations.  The harpsichord coupled with the kind of robotic singing...and then that quiet guitar solo.  I love that her accent is stronger when she sings "comets and stars".  I wish I could see my face the first time I listened to this song and got to 3:55...it probably registered a look of surprise and then a pleased little smile.  Flamenco?  And then those pounding drums and the male background vocals and then back to where we started with the piano. 

I realize that this is the LONGEST post of all time, BUT the headphones and my experience listening to "Sunset" after it had been a while kind of opened me up to giving the album another go.  The song about the washing machine?  It made me cry.  The Renaissance-tinged ode KB wrote for her son, Bertie?  I nearly passed out.  And, π ?  SHE SINGS PI (like 3.1415926535,,,) AND IT IS HEARTBREAKING AND BEAUTIFUL.  That's when I realized that the entire album is about fusion.  And that's when I came to the conclusion that Kate Bush is brilliant.

4. Sidenote (and totally cheating again BUT): The original version of "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" on Kate's album, Hounds of Love...Placebo's cover just does not compare (and, like, I love the Placebo, dude, but REALLY).

Comments

[cabaretlights.livejournal.com]

1) I think a way to resolve this crazy commenting anxiety I have might be: to allow myself permission to come back. So, a disclaimer: in a week, a month, a frickin year, you might get an addition to this comment (or any comment I've posted) -- I'm leaving something out of all of them just by virtue of music being a fundamentally inarticulable experience...but if I can put words to something later, I'll be back.

2) Okay. SO.

2a) That was not a truncated comment, I just really don't have words for a lot of this post, haha.

3) I love, love, that the first time I heard this, I was so swept away by the beautiful, soft but somehow melodic-yet-jarring piano, that when ~3:54 rolled around I actually sat up straight in my chair. Sometimes, even after listening to this song eight hundred million times, it still surprises me. I love when music can surprise me like that; you start thinking you've heard everything and then OH HEY, not even, here's this in your face, deal with it. Amazing.

4) Amazing use of theme, dude, I'm still blown away. Perfect.

5) The way she sings is...like...I don't even know. I don't have a ton of Kate Bush but as soon as my internet gets fixed I'm going to do a discography hunt, because I need more of that voice. This song is just so heartwrenching. I think I have Aerial on the PC I had in 2005, because I remember downloading it when it came out...but I was still a kid and my taste in music wasn't ready for Ms. Bush; like you I let the album slide. I'll have to dig. And oh how I love Tori, but hahaha -- sometimes dads just know their shit, man!!

6) Randomly: I love that we both mentioned Placebo in Post 8! Though I have to say I almost consider the two songs incomparable (which is rare, for me, when it comes to covers). Literally, I mean -- that you can't really compare them, because they do such different things to the listener. APC's Imagine cover being another good example...or, like, Johnny Depp vs Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka.

7) I can totally relate to the theme-throbbing-in-the-back-of-my-head issue, now that I've gone through my harmonica penance. hahaha -- IT IS A GREAT KIND OF PAIN. ♥

8) The headphones. ♥ And man if the effect of those Sennheisers had ended with this post and everything that Aerial became to you -- I consider my brand loyalty worth it.

9) I LOVE THIS SONG. Like, here is my issue with the comments here: NOT SUFFICIENT. Not that it ever really is, but I just feel I haven't addressed how good, just universally good, this song is, simply because I don't have the words. It's like this perfect little pearl of music in a big oyster mire of stuff that sounds the same. Like Venetian Snares, it makes me so aware of the power and ability of music; what music can become with creativity and talent and innovation. It's a genrebending song, a FUSION of so much -- but it's also that meta perfection -- music does things no other art form can.

10) Enough? For now!