FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow at Fifteen
Exploring the Album’s Best Three Tracks
_________
ONE of the songs…
that I am highlighting in this feature does not have a lot written about it. However, I did want to explore the best tracks from Kate Bush’s most recent studio album, 50 Words for Snow. It turns fifteen on 21st November. The album has seven longer tracks. It was a bit of a departure from 2005’s Aerial. That was aa double album with a greater number of tracks shorter in length. The odd longer song. The second disc, A Sky of Honey, is a conceptual suite. In terms of a concept for 50 Words for Snow, I guess snow itself holds most of the tracks together, though there is not really an arc or concept like we find on Aerial. I love 50 Words for Snow, as longer tracks allow all this room and space. In terms of instrumentation, it is the sparsest Kate Bush album. Most songs having piano, drums, bass and guitar. That is not to say 50 Words for Snow lacks depth and texture. It does not get as much critical love and respect as some other Kate Bush albums. Perhaps people less patient regarding length of songs. I would advise people to spend time with the album. There are a few tracks particularly that are highlights. I wanted to mention them here. The first track that I wanted to spotlight is Misty. Before going into the song, here is some interview archives regarding this song:
“Well, I think in that particular song obviously there is a sexual encounter going on…
John Doran, ‘A Demon In The Drift: Kate Bush Interviewed’. The Quietus, 2011
It’s a silly idea. But I hope that what has happened is that there’s almost a sense of tenderness. I think it’s quite a dark song. And so I hope that I’ve made it work. But in a lot of ways it shouldn’t because… It’s ridiculous, isn’t it, the idea of the snowman visiting this woman and climbing into bed with her.
But I took him as a purely symbolic snowman, it was about…
No John, he’s REAL (laughs).
There is a lot going on in Misty. I always associate this track with being Christmas-like. We connect snowmen more with that time of year. It is hard not to think of The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. That story came out in 1978. The idea of a snowman coming to life and then it melting by the morning. It is a bittersweet tale. That sad ending. Kate Bush perhaps not intentionally referencing this story when she wrote Misty. Though I don’t think any artist has ever brought to life a snowman and there being this sexual element. The Guardian references The Snowman when they reviewed 50 Words for Snow upon its release in 2011: “Had anyone else dared retell the story of Raymond Briggs's The Snowman as a sexual fantasy which finds "Misty" coming in through the window at night to seduce a willing underage girl, they would have been denounced as abominable by the tabloids. As it's the grand dame of British art-pop – influence on Florence Welch and countless others – we can discuss the themes of "Misty" – doomed love, virginity's end, soaking sheets and double entendres such as "I can feel him melting in my hand" – like grown-ups. (Well, almost.) At once absurd and elegant, passionate and glacial, "Misty" stands for the whole album, locating all kinds of love in cold climates”.
There is so much diversity on 50 Words for Snow. A lot of people assuming that it was very same-sounding. I think there is a lot of range throughout the album. You cannot really compare songs like Misty with others on 50 Words for Snow. Misty is the longest song on the album at over thirteen minutes. Up until this point, Bush had really not committed to a song as long as this. She does not repeat herself with albums, so the idea here was to tell a fuller story. She was at the point in her career where she did not need to write easy singles and be what is seen as traditionally commercial. There other two songs from 50 Words for Snow I want to write about are the ‘shortest’. Both are still over six minutes. Yet they are not as expansive as Misty or Lake Tahoe. Wild Man was released as the single from 50 Words for Snow. The inspirations behind the songs are fascinating. There is a lot of the mysterious and spectral. A snowman coming to life and melting. Lake Tahoe and this ghost of a woman that rises. Wild Man about this strange and maligned beast. It is a song that takes us to all these wonderful and far-off places. A song that could only really come from Kate Bush. Her curiosity for the unknown or mythologised. She has this mind that is very much open to the possibility of ghosts and spirits. Creatures and something beyond the human and ordinary. In 2011, Billboard provided their thoughts on Wild Man: “The weird and whimsical “Wild Man” serves as the first new single from British art-rock craftswoman Kate Bush in a whopping six years (not including the re-tooled tracks from this year’s “Director’s Cut”). A word of advice to first-time listeners: be sure to have an atlas and thesaurus handy. “From the Sherpas of Annapurna to the Rinpoche of Qinghai / Shepherds from Mount Kailash to Himachal Pradesh,” sings Bush in her breathy lisp, somehow sounding erotic while randomly referencing Indian provinces and Buddhist principles. For all of its impenetrable wordplay,”Wild Man” makes for a wicked headphone atmosphere, with Dan McIntosh’s expressionistic digital guitar curlicues wandering around a crisp Steve Gadd kit and John Giblin bass. As an announcement of Bush’s return, “Wild Man” is a tad off-kilter. But then again, when has the ever-singular Bush been anything but?”.
The final of three tracks from 50 Words for Snow I want to include is Among Angels. This is the shortest track on the album at 6:48. Not exactly a brief track, it is distinct because it is just Kate Bush and her piano. Not too many tracks in her catalogue where there is Bush and piano alone. You could say that her most affecting and memorable songs are where Kate Bush is on piano and there are not other sounds and layers. Mrs. Bartolozzi has this sadness and sense of loss. Under the Ivy quite devastating in its way. Among Angels one of her most emotional and touching songs. I think some Bush albums have a bit too much production gloss to them. 50 Words for Snow has a rawness so you can actually feel the heart and bones of each track. Almost like a live album, it is an album that brings different things to the surface each time you hear it. Among Angels ends 50 Words for Snow. It is the only song from the album that was included in Bush’s 2014 residency, Before the Dawn. As part of an encore that also included Cloudbusting, it seems like a tribute to her late father who died in 2008. There is family new and departed on the album. Bush’s son Bertie sings on Snowflake. He was very young when the album came out. Her father Robert died not long before she recorded 50 Words for Snow. Perhaps he was in her mind when she composed Among Angels. The lyrics are “Rest your weary world in their hands/Lay your broken laugh at their feet/I can see angels around you/They shimmer like mirrors in summer” are ones that could perhaps relate to other people and their feelings. Words that will strike a chord. There is not a lot of discussion around the seven tracks on 50 Words for Snow. Reviews of the album, yet few articles dedicated to particular songs. Most reviews agree that Among Angels is a highlight. This article hares these words about Among Angels: “The final track, a lush piano ballad titled “Among Angels” is just solo Kate Bush at her most somber and bare. It simply tells of the connections between reality and the divine. It’s a gorgeous closer that could very well work as her final farewell to music”. On 21st November, 50 Words for Snow turns fifteen. It will probably not get a lot of new stuff written about it. I hope fans do mark it. Fifteen years since a new Kate Bush album has come out, will next year finally be the one where we get another album?! Let’s hope. If you are not familiar with 50 Words for Snow or have dipped in and out, go and hear it in full. I wanted to take three prime tracks from the album and spend some time with them. All different and brilliant in their own way. Beautiful and distinct compositions…
FROM the brilliant Kate Bush.