i have heard that it is in a concept style. is it as good as the second half of hounds of love?
It's very difficult for me to compare the two because they're so different, but I do think this is the best thing Kate has done since Hounds of Love. I haven't been able to stop listening to this album since I picked it up!
Yes, the second half (my favorite) is a concept album. It is a journey through a summer day spent roaming outdoors, starting out with the twittering of birds in the morning and Kate's son (I'm assuming) saying that "the day is full of birds; sounds like they're saying words." The language and laughter of birds is a sort of undercurrent to the album, with bits of bird song and chirping sprinkled throughout.
In the second track Kate seems to be happily anticipating the day, "We're gonna be laughing about this; We're gonna be dancing around; It's gonna be so good now...." and glorying in the beauties of nature.
In An Architect's Dream, Kate watches with fascination as a painter works on an oil painting outdoors. The song is an ode to painters or visual artists who can transform a smudge of paint into something wonderful and moving. All the while he is painting the light changes as the sun begins to lower in the sky. As the third track melts into the fourth it begins to rain and the colors of the painting run. The painter laments, but Kate finds the effect beautiful, "a wonderful sunset,".
The fifth track, is a lush and poetic description of the sun setting over the water. The setting sun turns the sky and the sea to honey. She asks "Who knows who wrote that song of summer that blackbirds sing at dusk?" The song starts out slow and jazzy and suddenly transforms into an exihilirating swirl of spanish guitar and rhythm that suggest the fiery burst of crimson just before the sun dips below the horizon. The song slows again and we hear the chirping of a bird and Kate imitating its language (so funny!)
After watching the sunset, Kate and her family walk to the top of the highest hill they can find to watch the last bit of daylight disappear and observe "where the shadows come to play, 'twixt the day and night; dancing and skipping along a chink of light." It's still and quiet and so beautiful that no one dares to talk for fear of breaking the magic of the moment. She says goodnight to the sun, as her son says goodnight to her.
In Nocturn, the seventh track, it's finally night and everyone is asleep except Kate and her husband/lover. They drive out into the moonlight and go down to the beach for a swim, leaving their clothes on the beach and footprints in the sand leading down to the ocean. They are all alone standing out in the Atlantic ocean and the view is so wide it's panoramic. Wading out in the water they feel like they're in a dream, at once a part of the star sprinkled sky and the silky sea water that laps around their legs. They wade out further and dive down into the water as the sun begins to rise and once again turns the sea and sky into honey.
Aerial, the final track, Kate is exhilirated by the coming of dawn and once again full of anticipation of a new day. She exclaims, "I feel I want to be up on the roof!" With the coming of the sun the birds begin their chattering. Kate asks, "What kind of language is this?" We hear the twittering of a bird that sounds like cheerful laughter and Kate joins in, laughing hilariously (or would that be maniacally
). She describes the birds' morning song as laughter and encourages us to all join in. The song ends with a chorus of laughter and, if you have the album on repeat, goes right back into Kate's son saying that the "day is full of birds."
Well, I've done my best to describe it (the second part anyway) but I hope you'll get a chance to hear it for yourself soon. It's absolutely brilliant!
