Author: Jernej Vene
Artist: Bush, Kate
Label: EMI Records
Released: 2011
Length: 65:06
Rating: 4.5/5
Some songwriters and performers don’t need huge concert tours and public appearances to get noticed. The generation of artists who built their careers in friendlier times, both for the record business and for the money in it, clearly has a big advantage here. We constantly hear how hard it is for younger artists who are just starting out. Proper promotion and a helping hand from the state could do a lot in this area too. Sadly, the situation is the same all over the world.
Apart from her first tour at the end of the seventies, the British singer and songwriter Kate Bush never went off on long musical journeys. Her eclectic, exploratory approach to music was enough to win over the big bosses at EMI, where she put out records from 1978 to 2005. She was writing songs as a teenager already, and some of them ended up on her debut The Kick Inside. Her deep dive into film and literature also meant she experienced the other branches of art in a very spiritual way. She enjoyed exceptional success up to the mid-eighties, and after that she released records less often. In thirty-three years she lined up eleven studio albums. Less is more, or quality over quantity, is Kate Bush’s motto. She’s regarded as a refined interpreter and an attentive observer of life and existence on Earth. In 2011 she surprised everyone: first came the record The Director’s Cut in May, on which she gave some of her own songs a fresh makeover and rewrote the lyrics a few times too. Then at the end of November 2011 came the record 50 Words For Snow, on which she lays bare her fascination with snow. It’s the right music for the end of the year, but a world away from the commercialized Christmas stuff served up by the music moguls from across the ocean. Kate Bush put only seven songs on the record, and their length alone shows how completely enchanted and fascinated she is by wintry precipitation.
Many say she has an angelic voice, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Her heartfelt delivery gives her at times piercing soprano the much-needed ability to get under the skin of even the most casual listener. It’s a big, bold move that Bush took on the idea of how to capture the mystique of wintertime during a snowfall so freely. Plenty of childhood memories and daydreams are key here. The minimalist instrumentation ramps up the mystery of the subject matter. With just a piano, Kate Bush can easily conjure up the atmosphere of unobtrusive winter reverie all by herself. More important than any philosophizing about what arrangements can add to music is the fact that, once again, as so many times before, Kate Bush controlled the whole working process herself. Artists often fall into a circle of self-indulgence with exactly this kind of move and never find their way out. Kate Bush is completely in command here. As used to be the custom throughout history, you had to listen to a record several times to get a real insight into the artist’s message. That was back in the pre-instant days. Today it’s practically blasphemy to put seven songs on a record, the shortest of which runs just under seven minutes. That’s exactly why listeners have to make an effort and step into her world to be able to understand…
Kate created a moving duet with Elton John in the song Snowed in at Wheeler Street, where the two of them reflect on the reincarnation of lovers across four historical periods.
On 50 Words For Snow, Kate Bush also sails through contemplative, slightly dark waters, thinking of snow as something gentle and pure, a medium that should cleanse us. Cleanse us of the everyday filth we take in physically and even more so mentally. In the title track, the actor Stephen Fry lists fifty synonyms for snow, so Kate Bush is clearly still capable of thinking differently from most musicians. The figure of the snowman is a metaphor for unrequited and undying love, for a great longing that many seek and few find.
So Kate Bush is once again a pleasant surprise. If you’re going to sneer at the song lengths, that’s on you. Good things take a long time.
Lineup
Kate Bush – vocals, keyboards, bass
Dan Mcintosh – guitar
John Giblin – bass
Danny Thompson – bass
Steve Gadd – drums
Elton John – vocals
Andy Fairweather Low – backing vocals
Stephen Fry – vocals
Production
Kate Bush
Tracklist
1. Snowflake 9:48
2. Lake Tahoe 11:08
3. Misty 13:32
4. Wild Man 7:17
5. Snowed in at Wheeler Street 8:05
6. 50 Words for Snow 8:31
7. Among Angels 6:49
