Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow

I truly wanted this to be a fantastic record, but some 14 years later, I still can't. I just can't. The morose and sombre tone of the music is just too much and not enough at the same time. It doesn't dint her status as one of the finest musicians and singers ever, but it does show that she has aged physically, because she doesn't even try to reach out with her vocals. She mumbles and lowly moans her lyrics which is okay for one piece but not for 65 minutes. Her history was based upon musical prowess and daring. This is her with a piano (and likely a bottle of scotch) mumbling numbers between one and fifty while another word for snow is recited. Clever - not.

It certainly cures insomnia as I often fall asleep during listening to it. I'm hoping that wasn't her intention.

I will always ire and respect and devour her first seven albums, while I file away Aerial, Director's Cut and 50 Words For Snow as shadows of her former self.

The "Japanese" and UK & Europe releases of 50WFS were both pressed by Pozzoli in Italy. You can hear they are sonically identical. The batch run they are from suffers a playback fault on my CD player (Sony X555ES), a loud swishing noise. My guess is Pozzoli used cheap blank media. To get around this I ripped one of the discs to my PC and then burned my own copy onto a CMC pro CDR.
The disc I burnt myself plays perfectly on the X555ES. The mastering is gorgeous.

CMC Pro discs are obviously better than the discs used by Pozzoli, which is a let down.

As for the album itself, it has a vibe that I like for the first 4 songs, and then the Elton John collab is a weird one to adjust to, and then the title track started out okay but went nowhere and then ended abruptly. "Among Angels" is whimsical lamenting piano KB, but not whimsical lamenting piano KB at her best. It doesn't fit the other songs, maybe it was added because it's whimsical lamenting piano KB so her fans will obviously lap it up. I didn't.

I realise not every KB album flows from song to song perfectly as on the conceptual A Sky Of Honey or The Ninth Wave, but 50WFS is actually a discomforting and disted listening experience for me. I find it awkward. She hasn't released an originals album since, and to me it is obvious to me that since the birth of her son coherent and interesting ideas take years to come to KB. It really is a pity to me that the last 3 songs on 50WFS kill what the first 4 build up.

I've always loved quiet Kate but, like jazzy Joni, it's clearly not for everyone. There is an understated beauty about this record. I first heard it a record shop and was wandering around whilst Snowed On Wheeler Street was playing trying to fathom who the male vocalist was. I eventually had to go and look up the sleeve notes and was staggered to discover it was Elton John. I've never heard him do anything like it and was amazed at what Kate Bush had managed to coax out of him. A record for the darkening skies of too early evenings. This is the perfect evocation of how I think and feel about snow. If you let its gentle beauty in, this is a very distinctive and wonderful record.

By what I've heard way to "quiet" for my taste. Will for 1st time on a KB album.

I have always enjoyed Bush,but this one.......
I keep placing it on the turntable again and again hoping one day it will spark me somehow.
But still, after numerous plays it doesn't work for me.
I guess I will never nourish this one, though a shame.

I have the American vinyl pressing of this and have to say the sound is not great and the vinyl is noisy. To an extent this is characteristic of the last three Bush albums, none of which have really great sound or pressings, but this one is definitely the worst. Disappointing.

Also available on 24bit/96kHz WAV files at katebush.com
Hhhhhhmmmmm....

I have just finished listening to the double vinyl version of this album. It's a far cry from some of her other fodder, such as the more popular first album, "The Kick Inside" (and 'Wuthering Heights'). I enjoyed the 65.00 of...shall I say unusual...style of composition of her songs on this album. Some albums may take the first listen for it to become your favourite record; this one, I feel, is an acquired taste that may take several playbacks before the album will remain with you long after the music has ended.

Kate Bush is one of those rare gems in music. Every album she releases is a work of art, a conceptual hotpot of ideas, each part of it carefully crafted, sung, written and produced by the same person. She is a true artist, always managing to remain current while being completely different and entirely out of context to the rest of her peers. The music she creates invites us to her own little world, the Kate Bush bubble, a refreshing break from the over-saturated, over-produced, over-rehashed, tired pastiche of what we call contemporary music. In her world, music is still in a state of original creation and personal revelation and this almost presents itself as a romantic, nostalgic way of seeing music.

With a mature artist such as Bush though, there is always the danger that new work will appear diluted and repetitive, becoming a faded icon of what used to be, like many big artists of the past have become. So it was with great caution and trepidation but also excitement that I pre-ordered this new release. To my great relief, Kate Bush once again does not disappoint. The first track starts simply with her playing the piano, and when her voice comes in you are instantly captivated. You are back again in that bubble, protected and soothed by her unique voice that gently invites you in her specially crafted environment of soundscapes. The whole album is slow and deliberate, there is absolutely no hurry to get to the point or to immediately bombard you with her beautifully created subtle production. It is simple, yet rich. It is Kate Bush effortlessly showing that she is still a rich source of creation. It keeps you wanting for more. And that is perhaps my only 'problem' with this album. I wish it would last longer. This will be probably the only real music album of the year, and I do not want it to end. Luckily Kate Bush's back catalogue still remains or is even more relevant and rich as ever before. I hope this will not be the last we hear from her, or that she does not go on a 10 year hiatus again, because we truly, desperately need real artists like her. A new album from Kate Bush still remains a privilege, a faith-restoring gift from a true genius.