Kate Bush returns to planet Earth

So finally she has returned from her long break who knows where. Welcome back Kate Bush! She has just released a single called King of the Mountain from her forthcoming album Aerial.

Here are the lyrics:

King of the Mountain

Could you see the aisles of women?/Could you see them screaming and weeping?/Could you see the storm rising?/Could you see the guy who was driving?/Could you climb higher and higher?/Could you climb right over the top?/Why does a multi-millionaire/Fill up his home with priceless junk?

The wind is whistling/The wind is whistling/Through the house

Elvis are you out there somewhere/Looking like a happy man?/In the snow with Rosebud/And king of the mountain

Another Hollywood waitress/Is telling us she´s having your baby/And there´s a rumour that you´re on ice/And you will rise again someday/And that there´s a photograph/Where you´re dancing on your grave

The wind is whistling/The wind is whistling/Through the house

Elvis are you out there somewhere/Looking like a happy man?/In the snow with Rosebud/And king of the mountain

The wind it blows/The wind it blows the door closed

KOTM is a dark and mysterious song which rewards repeated listening. It starts very quietly with indistinct singing by KB, then the mist clears and she is soaring with the clarity that we all know and love. The KTian sound is exactly as we remember. The BVs don't have much to do, but guitar and percussion have lots of fun.

Kate's lyrics are always deeper than you think they are. Her music is the same - it is deeply layered. KOTM appears to be about an ambitious and self-obsessed high-flyer who has not really got the hang of life. How many people like that do you know?!

I wonder what the "Aerial" album will bring. As for the name "Aerial", I suspect that it describes the impression that an artiste receives their ideas via a mental "aerial" that is picking up ideas that are floating "out there". Some people's aerials are definitely a lot better than other's! Kate's aerial is what the techies call ultra-wideband; it picks up everything.

Update: The news of KB's return has appeared here in a physics blog.

Fact and fiction

This blog will be where I comment on what's going on in the world. Why "Fact and Fiction"? Well, do you take everything at face value? The cartoon (which I have shamelessly copied from an old copy of Private Eye) says it better than I ever can.


I also have a "scholarly" blog about self-organising networks at ACEnetica. I keep this material in a separate blog because I find reading interleaved "scholarly" and "informal" material really irritating.