![News Added Apr 13, 2012 50 Words for Snow, her second album of 2011 after Director's Cut, was released on 21 November 2011. The album consists of seven songs "set against a backdrop of falling snow" and has a running time of 65 minutes. A radio edit of the first single "Wild Man" was played […]](https://hasitleaked.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/kate-bush-50-words-of-snow-artwork-1024x1024.jpg "Kate Bush : 50 Words For Snow")
50 Words for Snow, her second album of 2011 after Director's Cut, was released on 21 November 2011. The album consists of seven songs "set against a backdrop of falling snow" and has a running time of 65 minutes.
A radio edit of the first single "Wild Man" was played on BBC Radio 2's Ken Bruce Show on 10 October. The single, featuring both the radio edit as well as the album version, was released on 11 October. Andy Fairweather Low guest stars on this story of a group of people exploring the Himalayas who, upon finding evidence of the elusive, mythical Yeti, out of compassion cover up all traces of its footprints. Priya Elan in the New Musical Express greeted the single with enthusiasm, saying: "For those of us who have been secretly longing for a return to the unflinchingly bizarre and Bush's ability to conjure up strange new worlds, 'Wild Man' is a deep joy."
In an interview with the American radio station KCRW, Bush said that the idea for the album's title song came from thinking about the myth that Eskimos have 50 words for snow. She then decided to make up increasingly fantastical words herself, such as "spangladasha", "anechoic", "blown from Polar fur", and "Robber’s Veil". The album's songs are built around Bush's quietly jazzy piano and Steve Gadd's drums, and utilize both sung and spoken word vocals in what Classic Rock's Stephen Dalton calls "a...supple and experimental affair, with a contemporary chamber pop sound grounded in crisp piano, minimal percussion and light-touch electronics...billowing jazz-rock soundscapes, interwoven with fragmentary narratives delivered in a range of voices from shrill to Laurie Anderson-style cooing." Bassist Danny Thompson also appears on the album.
On the first track, "Snowflake", in a song written specifically to use his still high choir-boy voice,
Bush's son Albert sings the role of a falling snowflake in a song expressing the hope of a noisy world soon being hushed by snowfall. "Snowflake" drifts into "Lake Tahoe", where choral singers Stefan Roberts and Michael Wood join Bush in a song about a rarely seen ghost: a woman who appears in a Victorian gown to call to her dog, Snowflake. Bush explained to fellow musician Jamie Cullum in an interview on Dutch Radio that she wished to explore using high male voices in contrast to her own, deeper, voice. "Misty" is about a snowman lover who melts away after a night of passion, and after "Wild Man", Elton John and Bush as eternally divided lovers trade vocals on "Snowed In at Wheeler Street", while actor Stephen Fry recites the "50 Words for Snow". The quiet love song "Among Angels" finishes the album.
Two stop-motion "Animation Segments" were posted on the Kate Bush Official website and YouTube, one to accompany a 2 minute 25 second section of "Misty" (called "Mistraldespair"), the other to accompany a 2 minute 33 second section of "Wild Man". "Mistraldespair" was directed by Bush and animated by Gary Pureton, while the "Wild Man" segment was created by Finn and Patrick at Brandt Animation. On 24 January 2012, a third piece called "Eider Falls at Lake Tahoe", was premiered on her website and on YouTube. Running at 5:01, the piece is a black & white shadow puppet animation that NPR's Dan Raby calls "... beautiful in its simplicity — emphasizing small subtle movements over big extravagance...The stark contrast between the black figures and the white world makes each set piece seem mystical." Directed by Bush and photographed by award-winning British cinematographer Roger Pratt, the shadow puppets were designed by Robert Allsopp.
One of my 2011 favorites. :)