50 Words for Snow
Sixty-five minutes of quiet, jazz-tinged piano and hushed storytelling set against a backdrop of falling snow. Patient, intimate, and deeply wintry.
November 21, 2011 · EMI Label Services (2)
Sixty-five minutes of quiet, jazz-tinged piano and hushed storytelling set against a backdrop of falling snow. Patient, intimate, and deeply wintry.
November 21, 2011 · EMI Label Services (2)
Falling piano chords drift through quiet, drafty rooms like slow-settling flurries, wrapping you in a hushed, ink-black winter. The vocals arrive in low, conspiratorial whispers, spinning strange fables of lovers and snowmen. It feels less like an album and more like watching a fire die down while the world outside freezes over.
“Her best music, this album included, has the effect of putting one in the kind of treasured, child-like space - not so much innocent as open to imagination - that never gets old”Read review
“It proves her credentials of distinct maturity as well as exhibiting her ability to experiment successfully with deep-set and sombre but thoroughly captivating music”
“The album’s deliberate pace implies a marked growth to Bush’s creative spirit — never before has she taken such obvious and tender care with her work”
“Extended mood pieces and ambitious story-songs, set to muted keyboards, faraway string flourishes, sparse percussion”
“The overall dark, diaphanous sound here almost oversells the title, but it’s impossible not to get lost in ?the drift”Read review
“Kate Bush has never made a record that seems so ethereally disdainful of convention, of the parameters, themes and expectations of a simple pop song. But at the same time, she has never seemed so normal”Read review
“Wintry, unhurried atmosphere defines every second of 50 Words for Snow, Bush’s most striking work since 1989’s The Sensual World”Read review
“A record that’s more operatic in scope while staying within pop conventions in execution”Read review
“To the relief of anyone who carries a torch for the reclusive genius, it’s a beauty”Read review
“Musically. we’re in the same expansive, unhurried territory as 2005’s ’Ariel’”Read review
“It succeeds as a transitional work, but first and foremost as its own singular world—a hushed, magnificent snow globe full of strange stories and characters”Read review
“While the album is as icy as its title implies, there’s a dormant warmth to 50 Words that compensates for its lack of hooks”Read review
How does 50 Words for Snow sound next to the rest of Kate Bush's catalogue?
A quiet, magical snowfall blankets these seven lengthy compositions, cocooning the listener in a hushed winter ritual that feels entirely unique to this record.
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