Kate Bush
50 Words for Snow
Anti/Epitaph
Released 11.21.11
8.8
Kate Bush's album arrives like the first true gift of winter--deep and complex enough to last us through the chilly cold season. The first listen of "50 Words for Snow" turned into a three hour marathon, with each song growing and forming more nuances at every listen. By the time spring rolls around, we'll have these songs imprinted on our hearts.
These songs are deceptively simple, "Among Angels" is just Bush and a lonely piano, but they are are meaty in flavor and tone. Her vocals are haunting and composed, she never screams, but there is a perfect tension that reigns across the tracks. The tracks are lengthy (each clocking over six minutes), and this gives Bush the time to fully explore and express her visions.
Said visions indeed include snow, but also about the wildness of the primal. "Wild Man" brings to mind a man adept at surviving among the animals in the frigid wilderness. Such a man is risky to love and even more treacherous to be with. "Snowed in at Wheeler Street" is a duet of the contained frenzy of two lovers that both need each other and burn each other out. Their cries of "I don't want to lose you again" are heartbreaking and doomed.
This is the kind of album early Tori Amos fans would kill to hear; a rich tapestry of sound giving way to a complex heart. "50 Words for Snow" speaks to the quiet and empty places in life, gently shining a dim light in dark corners as not to scare the beasts that live there.
