8.5/10 from Ben at the sumptuously named Intercostal Clavicle:
“It is a calmer, more intimate album than we have come to expect. Of course, intimate moments abound on Kate Bush’s earlier records, but here the dominant sound is piano with fewer embellishments than usual. The layered, spacious soundscapes are absent. This is to be listened to holed up indoors away from winter storms, chilling and warming by turns. The songs are all built around the concept of snow and the music softly echoes its magical fragility. We are never trapped Under Ice … Her voice is captivating, the production lush and meticulous, but I relish most the elements of play and surprise. The ideas are fully formed, the characters speaking as clearly as her Cathy in Wuthering Heights, but we are never sure what will happen next … In 50 Words for Snow, Kate Bush has produced hushed music which gleams in an icy hinterland. Like snow, it invites and unnerves, giving its gift quietly. I am enthralled by a musical vision which has yet to waver or disappoint. How lucky we are.”
Neil
Personally i prefer Lalke Tahoe to Misty.It has haunting moments like the calling of snowflake with such beautiful yearning.The deep humming mixed with strings,the castanettes ,even the dog howl near the very end all strokes of genius.
Karen Newcombe
Isn’t the Intercostal Clavicle is the dinosaur bone that everyone, including the dog George, is trying to get their hands on in the movie “Bringing up Baby”? With Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant? One of the best and funniest movies ever made!
Barbara
And the dinosaur skeleton falls down at the end!
richard Hanna
I agree regards “Lake Tahoe” for me the best track on the album. Beautiful, Kate at her eerie yet sexy best. The song modulates and evolves where the song “Snow Flake” is too repetitive “The world is so loud, keep falling, I’ll find you is a beautiful line but begins to grate after too many repetitions. Misty is a another strong track and completes a song cycle.
Wildman is so very different from the previous tracks wakes us from the hypnotic trance she has woven over us , Snowed in at Wheeler street opens up the gamut even further, by the time Steven Fry is on the scene we begin to feel our intimate date with Kate has been gate crashed by too many suiters. With the last track Kate bookends the album with Angels a return in sentiment and style to the first three tracks. many critic’s have stated that “this is Kate’s most cohesive and homogenous album but for me it feels like two albums in one.