Category: 50 Words for Snow Page 3 of 12

Steve Knopper at Newsday:

“a song about getting it on with a snowman … one of several jarring, unpredictable moments on veteran British singer-songwriter and pop experimentalist Kate Bush’s second album of 2011 … Frequently the spacey piano arrangements, stately backup choir and Elton John cameo … give these seven long songs a certain ethereal beauty. But the album contains too many interminable clunkers, like the repetitive eight-minute title track…”

Honor Clement-Hayes at Howl:

“As one of Stephen’s 10 squillion Twitter followers, I felt like I’d got the inside scoop when he announced that he was recording with Kate Bush. I wasn’t, obviously. But I felt like I’d discovered an incredible secret. That’s kind of how I feel when I listen to this album. It’s like entering someone’s head when they aren’t looking and swimming around in their thoughts. Kate’s music has always felt very close and intimate, like she’s whispering in your ear, singing just for you … She’s over 50 now, but THAT VOICE is still childlike and playful and it’s just a complete delight to hear in this time of Beiber and Chipmunk and all the other thousand dead-faced clones. Robber’s Veil. Ankle Breaker. Simmer Glisten. Deep and Hidden. Bad for Trains. Vanishing World. Lose yourself in this album for a while, and leave it feeling refreshed and separated from the loud reality of life.”

Robun Simpson in his Cultural Dessert:

“Those of us who grew up fascinated by Kate Bush’s voice would probably be happy to listen to her reading the telephone directory. We get close to this on her new album … a quiet, contemplative collection of songs, mostly accompanied by gentle piano chords. It’s a beautiful work, despite continuing to sail mischievously close to self-parody … Much as I have been enjoying ‘Ceremonials’, the new album from Florence + The Machine … it is no substitute for the real thing. More please!”

Another five stars from Rory Williamson at the Cambridge Varsity:

“50 Words for Snow – the very idea is excessive, superfluous, even ridiculous, but this is precisely the kind of material from which only Kate Bush can create a masterpiece. As seven songs slowly unfurl for over an hour on the topic, the listener is left only with a strengthened sense of Bush’s uncanny ability to form an inhabitable world in an album … a welcome reminder of the songwriter’s lauded ability to juggle the sublime and the ridiculous … Lyrical playfulness is second nature for Bush, but 50 Words for Snow achieves cohesiveness across its seven tracks between even the most disparate ideas. It is a landscape populated by lost figures: the “lonely” Yeti of ‘Wild Man,’ the vanishing snowman of ‘Misty,’ the woman’s spirit crying out for her dog on ‘Lake Tahoe.’ For all of its light-heartedness, the title track’s endless synonyms point to the ephemeral fragility of snow that the record explores throughout: nothing here can be pinned down, as lovers have to separate, the animated snowman melts and the snowflake given voice on the opener proves impossible to find. The frozen landscape, for all its beauty, is harsh; it separates, confounds and ultimately disappears as quietly as it came … the work of a consummate artist who can simultaneously engage with her inherent whimsy and divorce herself from it, producing something both otherworldly and disarmingly, invitingly human.”

Novelist and poet Collin Kelley describes 50 Words For Snow as “perfection” in his review at Soldout Blog:

“Among Angels” is an absolutely stunning piece of work and features Kate’s best vocal performance on the album. The new, husky-voiced Kate we heard on Director’s Cut and throughout most of this album seems to melt away as her voice soars over the heart-rending lyrics: “There’s someone who’s loved you forever, but you don’t know it.” The song begins with a false start and you hear Kate very quietly say “sorry” before she returns to the piano. It’s odd that she left it in, but also charming in an unexplainable way.”

Keiron at HeavyVinyl is very wary of all the good reviews of 50 Words … but guess what:

“I may have read more reviews of this than any musical opus released this year. It’s partly my own fault as I too am one of “those people” whose rabid love for all things Kate can bore the shit out of people at parties … Every article I read makes the situation worse as there is a huge consensus that this is her best work… and this, predictably, grates with my sensibilities…. as I am one of those people who, when told what to think by critics and zeitgeist alike, tends to reject this perceived opinion with every fabric of my DNA. I. Just. Can’t. Help. It … Kate has stripped back the orchestration of “The Red Shoes” and “Ariel” to make a record that is both brave and beautiful. But despite the simplicity it is never sparse.. in fact it’s positively dense with ideas, lyrics, trembling pianos, choirs and stories that swirl round the listener like a blizzard. You can lose yourself in the melody and language and warm yourself with that incredible quivering voice. I know, I’m gushing, but it really is that good. Kate Bush really is an artist without peer and this is a perfect album for any season …”