Kate Bush : 50 Words For Snow

Never one to reveal all her secrets right away, Bush's latest album takes a while to sink in, but once it does, you realize that she's in top form....
Kate Bush : 50 Words For Snow
7.4 ANTI-
2011 

Kate Bush : 50 Words For SnowKate Bush is an icon of ‘80s college rock.

Kate Bush has only released one album since 1993.

The Futureheads (QRO live review) did a great cover of “Hounds of Love”, and Ra Ra Riot (QRO spotlight on) did a great cover of “Suspended In Gaffa”.

 

It always sucks when reviews start like this – listing all the things you already know about the artist rather than shedding any light on the album itself.  It’s almost always a guarantee that the review is going to be unbearable, but 50 Words For Snow was just the right album to try and beat that writers-trap on.  It needs no back-story, no reason to enjoy it other than just the music.

Never one to reveal all her secrets right away, Bush’s latest album takes a while to sink in, but once it does, you realize that she’s in top form with 50 Words For Snow.  On the first spin, it doesn’t inspire; on the second go around, it sounded pretty, if a little boring.  By the fifth listen you’re singing along a bit, but it wasn’t until later yet that it finally hit home.  Off the start, it meanders more than the most meandering of Joni Mitchell albums, but it finds its bearings by the end of “Lake Tahoe”, and once the persistent “Wild Song” and Yeti-rock of “Snowed In At Wheeler Street” chug by you are fully immersed.

The array of sounds that Bush utilizes is all as slick as ever.  Her production is spectacularly understated (a contradiction in terms that just sounds right in music) and it really makes the album a pleasure to listen to.  Bush and her contributors – everyone from Albert McIntosh, to Andy Fairweather Low, to Elton John – put together perhaps the most finely constructed album of 2011 this side of Drake’s Take Care (QRO review).

It has been eighteen years since Bush released The Red Shoes and six years since her real comeback album Aerial (check it out, you won’t be disappointed), but it’s clear that she’s still got what it takes.  50 Words For Snow is everything that you could hope for in a follow-up to a comeback album after being off the radar for as long as Bush was.  It’s everything you could want from a former ‘80s college rock icon, and those Futureheads & Ra Ra Riot covers do rock (no, it’s not possible to avoid saying all that, screw it, just buy the album, turn out the lights and listen…).

MP3 Stream: “Wild Man

{audio}/mp3/files/Kate Bush – Wild Man.mp3{/audio}

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