Absence makes the heart grow fonder -- and, it appears, a great deal more forgiving.

There's no other reason, really, for Kate Bush's latest CD Aerial -- and her first album in 12 years -- to receive a passing grade.

But it does. Barely.

And wholly because it is Bush -- the woman and voice which launched a million imitators (See Amos, Apple, Gryner etc.) who could never quite get it as right as the originator did during her decade run beginning in the late '70s.

But the artist appearing on Aerial is a pale version of her former self, albeit a more interesting one than which appeared on 1992's terrible last outing The Red Shoe.

At least she's not going for the post-Peter Gabriel hit single, simply following her muse in a world where time has stood still and no musical trend or outside influences have made their way into the lyrical piano ballad mix.

And that's probably why the 16 tracks -- split into two discs, titled A Sea of Honey and A Sky of Honey -- seem so dense and indulgent and, at times, hopelessly flaky.

It's why Bush has no problem singing the first 117 numbers of the value of p in the song of the same name.

Or why she has no problem sounding like Grover in the song Joanni.

Or why the vocalist can sing, with all seriousness, the lines: "Slooshy sloshy slooshy sloshy/Get that dirty shirt clean/Slooshy sloshy slooshy sloshy/Make those cuffs and collars gleam/Everything clean and shiny/Washing machine/Washing machine/ Washing machine."

But it's also why she nails it every so often, as she does on the wonderful How to Be Invisible, or the chill-inducing Prelude and Prologue, the jazzy and preciously poetic Sunset, and the lush, dramatic epic Nocturn.

Aerial is by no means the best thing Kate Bush has done in her career.

But it is a return.

One which reminds you how much she's been missed.

Track Listing

1. King of the Mountain
2. Pi
3. Bertie
4. Mrs. Bartolozzi
5. How to Be Invisible
6. Joanni
7. Coral Room
8. Prelude
9. Prologue
10. Architect's Dream
11. Painter's Link
12. Sunset
13. Aerial Tal
14. Somewhere in Between
15. Nocturn
16. Aerial