Steps Backwards...

You may recall earlier in the week, I was excited about the imminent release of the new Kate Bush album "Ariel". Well, now I have my grubby little mitts on a copy and having listened to it a couple of times, I can't help feeling a little disappointed. Normally, I find each new Kate Bush album a movement forwards; sounding quite unlike its predecessors. This time, after the promising start of "King of the Mountain" and "π", I'm sat thinking that some of the album sounds very much like some of the piano solos on either "A Kick Inside" or "Lionheart". And the whole of the second disc reminds me of the slower parts of "The Ninth Wave" from "The Hounds of Love".

It doesn't help that I felt let down by the new Mike Oldfield album "Light and Shade", which lacks some of the punchier tracks of the past...