The cover image, which seems to show a mountain range at sunset reflected on the sea is in fact a waveform of a blackbird song superimposed over a glowing photograph.

Beginning with blackbirds singing in the dawn chorus, a woodpigeon cooing, solo piano, and Bush's son saying, "Mummy, Daddy, the day is full of birds," the piece begins with an early morning awakening to a beautiful day of sun shining "like the light in Italy"; it proceeds through a visit with a painter who is working on a new piece of pavement art ("An Architect's Dream" and "The Painter's Link") and then passes on to a crimson "Sunset".

In the album's initial release, A Sky of Honey features Rolf Harris playing the didgeridoo and providing vocals on "An Architect's Dream" and "The Painter's Link".

[10][11] Other guest artists include Peter Erskine, Eberhard Weber, Lol Creme and Procol Harum's Gary Brooker.

In one of his final projects before his death in 2003, long-time Bush collaborator Michael Kamen arranged the string sections, performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra.

[citation needed] In the 2014 series of concerts in London, Before the Dawn, Bush performed "King of the Mountain", "Joanni" and the whole Sky of Honey song cycle live for the first time.

Rob Chapman, writing in The Times, stated that "...its closing triptych, Somewhere in Between, Nocturn, and Aerial, represents the most joyous and euphoric finale to an album that you will hear all year.

"[22] In Stylus Magazine, Marcello Carlin stated that "Aerial was a triumph, a towering dual masterpiece arriving like a huge galleon into the shallow pool of enforced worthiness and happiness which defined that era’s pop.

The B-side (or second track) of the single was a Marvin Gaye cover, "Sexual Healing", recorded in 1994, and was not available on any of her albums until the release of the compilation The Other Sides in 2018.

In light of the sexual assault conviction against Rolf Harris, his contributions to "An Architect's Dream" and "The Painter's Link" were removed and replaced with performances by Albert McIntosh, Bush's son.