It's over twelve years since Kate Bush's last album, 1993's 'The Red Shoes' and oh how things have changed. The world lives in fear of terror and natural disasters, the French have learned to fight, and musically the most successful British bands are coming from the Midlands instead of unmarked factories in southern London.

So Kate Bush's extreme isolation from the outer world is all too apparent in her 'comeback' album Aerial, and I for one couldn't be happier.

At times it may feel clogged and sound more than a little predicatble but Aerial is the complete antithesis to the current music scene.

She chooses minimalism and introspection over the clogged, packed sound prefered by todays crop of artists. Current single 'King of the Mountain' introduces the album, and its probably the closest she gets to a straightforward 'hit'. Most tracks offer little in the sense of direction but Bush manages to fill every second with ethereal magic. Fans of Bjork will surely appreciate tracks like 'Somewhere in Between' and the haunting, sonorous orchestration of 'Prelude' and parts of the title track wouldnt sound out of place on the first Silver Mt Zion album.

Some may argue that the album's lack of change from previous material represents a lack of effort but Aerial is timeless. It doesn't dwell in a certain space of the timeline of music, it nestles in a perpindicular direction, possibly in a seperate dimension construced in isolation on the fringe of insanity. Maybe some questions shouldnt be asked, or at least answered.