Kate Bush // 50 Words For Snow

Kate Bush's new song is out. "Wild Man" is haunting and textured, evocative of many different things, but cohesive as well. It sounds right. If Aerial saw the sun set, "Wild Man" promises to watch over winter with its forthcoming album, 50 Words For Snow.

Anticipate here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3BzjfAjug4

Thanks for the link!

Wasn't too impressed at first, but the song has grown to be my song of choice to wake up to. It got substance while being featherlight at the same time. It reminds me of Morning Fog in that regard.

the album title is beneath her, i think. kind of a cliche. but i like the single.

love the one-note beginning. so Kate, and so good.

ok 2 notes

c&p from the main Kate thread, to keep it all together:

New single is pretty interested and bodes well for the album after disappointment of Director's Cut. Sounds fairly Dreaming era arrangement wise. Sad to hear her voice is slightly diminishing in it's power nowadays though.

― Jamie_ATP, Monday, 10 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I missed the premier on BBC Radio2, is that where you heard it? I'm stoked!

― Young Swell (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 10 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Someone posted it for streaming here: http://breakingillusions.tumblr.com/post/11268597787/wild-man-kate-bush-album-version-you-are

Not for me, I'm sad to say.

― Leonard Pine, Monday, 10 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://consequenceofsound.net/2011/10/check-out-kate-bush-wild-man/

― Lars and the Lulu Girl (NickB), Monday, 10 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oops xp

― Lars and the Lulu Girl (NickB), Monday, 10 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Thanks guys!

― Young Swell (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 10 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Chorus sounds kinda Steely Dan

― Lars and the Lulu Girl (NickB), Monday, 10 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I really like it, thanks.

― Ismael Klata, Monday, 10 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Hmmm... It's good, but I'm not mad on the chorus.

It's got a bit of a Bowie-vibe overall, no?

Her voice has definitely waned a bit, she sounds more like Patti Smith.

I'm very glad to hear form her again after DC which was a disaster imho, so it's good to have her back, and like Jamie said, bodes well for the album.

― Young Swell (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 10 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

love the new song!

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 10 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

can't tell. honestly for years I've been very lukewarm on anything new she puts out but then I grow to love most of it. the music is great, certainly

― akm, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This song is a bit. . . uneventful.

― Cal Jeddah (_Rudipherous_), Tuesday, 11 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It's got a bit of a Bowie-vibe overall, no?

I was more thinking Japan. A very early eighties electronic sound for sure.

― Sebastian (Royal Mermaid Mover), Tuesday, 11 October 2011 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I thought it pretty much follows on from Aerial, somewhere between 'King of the Mountain' and 'Nocturn'. I really like the production, the progression in the electric piano sounds is warm and lovely.

One thing though is that there's not much in the way of melody. On the verses she's really having to try to force the vocal into a tune that isn't really there. It's something that's come out of participating in the U2 and Led Zep polls, how eventually the ability to write strong hooks just goes. You make up for it in other ways, like her exploring long, loping rhythms, but I'm wondering if that's a universal of ageing for some reason.

― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 11 October 2011

often, it seems that musicians explore different sorts of hooks with time. i think part of it comes from growing tired of writing the same kinds of melodies. but that only intrigues me more; as a listener, i appreciate shifts in songwriting. if it weren't for such changes in a musician's ability to write hooks, many masterpieces would not have seen the light of day (see Prologue on Aerial). i love the hooks in this song, from the instrumental to the floating chorus. and i like the spoken verses; kate bush has never shyed away from a bit of humor. it makes total sense.

i'm on my second listen and i really like this song a lot. it sounds beautiful and relaxed.

This has made me think about the idea of pop artists who evolved into obsessive auteurs, interested in production as much as (or more than) songwriting, famously private and slow to release records. It feels like a very 80s concept - Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Mark Hollis, Sade - Scott Walker from an earlier era, though the 80s was when the process began. I don't see that happening much now, partly because the Top 40 is so closed-down and narrow that none of them would have the pop success in the first place necessary to make that journey.

This has made me think about the idea of pop artists who evolved into obsessive auteurs, interested in production as much as (or more than) songwriting, famously private and slow to release records

i'm really hoping that the new thomas dolby album subscribes to this type of process

The new Thomas Dolby is very good with a few clunkers but it's not going to hit the charts or make any converts.

i hope we get to hear another song soon

The full version is on Spotify and is... seven minutes long!

I really like this, it sounds the opposite of snowy and wintery to me - kind of Balearic actually, a bit Fleetwood Mac or something maybe?

It's the second-shortest on the album - there two over ten mins on there

7 minutes!!!!

the thing about this song is i - i can feel the mountainside, like i'm on it

this is definitely growing on me, love the keyboard sound

the bass drum sounds really weird and flamming on this youtube

Kate's definitely worth a vote on the Producers Poll imo (voting closes tomorrow). Everything since at least The Dreaming has been all her own work aiui, and I always love the sound.

she completely mired the production on TSW and TRS. i think she realized that later on, when she came up with aerial.

I take it that's the reason The Director's Cut exists? I don't mind The Red Shoes myself, but I don't know any other records in that kind of AOR field to compare it with. The Sensual World I've never actually heard, though it's got 'This Woman's Work' on it, which is flawless afaiac.

yea it is one of the better produced tracks on the album

and yes i guess that was the reasoning for TDC, tho DU was awful

Full version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB1f-oEGmUI

Sorry, but I am not enjoying the vocal delivery at all. I assume it's a response to loss of vocal capacity. Overall, it feels as though the lyrics have to support a lot of the weight here, and I am not drawn in to the sense of mystery she is going for.

I keep thinking of Robert Bly.

i don't think i'll listen to the full length until the album comes out

nevermind, just listened to it. it's beautiful. borrows from elements of aerial but also goes back to a never for ever sound, in my mind.

That was quick :)

So it's out there already?

o no i just mean Wild Man 7min version -- if the album were out already i be flippin :P

Ooohhhhhhh I see. You had me flipping there for a minute :)

http://louderthanwar.com/featured/kate-bush-50-words-for-snow-album-review

Wow

tbh I do still dread the Elton John duet, but that review is glowing

don't know that site, seems a little fanboy-ish but still i'm excited

yeah

http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&title=kate_bush_50_words_for_snow&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

more even-toned

Tbh that louderthanwar review reads like a high school kid wrote it. Way too OMG!!

i know it's true, i just saw it on my facebook feed and get excited

Mojo review is largely positive - and suggests Elton knocks one out of the park with his vocal FWIW.

I'm really encouraged by the details in those reviews - rolling pianos, jazzy drums, the mood of A Coral Room. I like. The quality can take care of itself, in time.

http://thequietus.com/articles/07364-kate-bush-interview-2

I liked this in the Uncut review:

"But at the same time, the way the track is predicated on Fry’s reputation as bibliophilic fount of all knowledge seems somehow crass. Given how much of Kate Bush’s appeal is built on an image of her being blissfully disconnected from the real world, it is disappointing to imagine her coming up with the concept while slumped in front of QI on a Friday night."

Last time out (with a new album), she was writing songs about Washing Machines.

"Blissfully disconnected" has left the building.

Mojo review is largely positive

She's famous and over 50 so it's bound to be, innit?

The spotlight is also shared on the title track, with Stephen Fry cast as Dr Joseph Yupik (Yupiks being an Eskimo tribe of Siberia and Alaska), goaded by Bush – “Come on Joe, you've got 32 to go!” – into finding 50 synonyms for snow. The droll neologising – “Wenceslasaire”, “spangladasha”, “shnamistoflopp'n”, “Zhivagodamarbletash

As long as I breathe, I hope never to hear this track

Yeah, I shall be pressing play in fear and trepidation with my hand about an inch from the stop button on that track.

o boyy that sounds ... iffy

Both Elton and Fry sound better on record than in theory. They're not playing too much to type.

i would have expected that actually. does that mean you've heard the record?

i mean, thank you for pointing out that it sounded like the bad kind of new age music; that was nice of you

i heard this laraaji track the other week i thought was amazing

I'm quoting from the person who said it was bland new age muzak. Fuck me, it's not rocket science.

Unless you were talking to the poster miles upthread, in which case. All apologies.

i was! i'm just curious about that kind of gesture -- why when you're doing a dismissive comparison to (x) you find it necessary to say "this is like bad x", when you don't know anything about x or even belive that good x exists

Well I guess if you don't really know anything about x it's good to specify what it is you imagine is bad about x when making the comparison.

Ironically both Aerial and 50 Words For Snow have, as a general rule, gotten stronger the closer the tend towards "bland new age".

Saying Aerial is bland is like saying freshly baked sourdough bread is bland or uniform, soft and smooth baby skin is bland.

What would constitute gnarly or terrifying new age I wonder?

xp

yeah for real. the first 3 tracks do feel the strongest at the mo, maybe the last one too, and it's notable that they're the most cohesive in terms of mood and texture.

blandcanbegoodblandcanbegood

50 Different Words For Bland.

Dispassionate (good)

that Fry track is a bit throwaway imo but i can't help but like the way he says "eraser dust", despite myself

every Kate album has some moments of sheer pleasure at pronunciation/intonation i think

x-p
does the bland in bland new age describe the new age in question or is it supposed to mean all new age is bland? in the first case you are wrong concerning this album as firstly i don't think it qualifies as new age and secondly the music surely is a little too subtle for being bland. the second case is just redundant metatalk which can be ignored totally.

redundant metatalk obv.

I guess possibly it is the former if the speaker imagines some kind of new age with orgiastic masturbatory panpipe solos that is not bland (if this exists please youtube).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToR1-CJ3q0s

New Age of Earth not really New Age tho, ironically

I think, by "bland new age", Zuleika is referring more to, like, Celtic Reflections CDs. It's not such a lousy opinion, really, if somebody prefers the spiky, gated drum sounds of Dreaming/Hounds to the velvet hand of Steve Gadd.

b-b-b-but gated drums are cool again!

No. What s/he said makes as little sense as saying, 'I hate this new banging acid house direction she's taken over the last two albums.'

It is not bland new age in any way imho, but I do agree with the sentiment that Kate seems to get closer and closer to more conventional pop music. The stuff of her last two albums is closer related to the music of artists like Elton John or Sting than the stuff from The Dreaming or Never for Ever. Peter Gabriel went that road too. And even Laurie Anderson. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. But I can imagine why people - especially those not familiar with the Kate (or Gabriel or Anderson) of yore - do not understand why people go so whoopee over new music that doesn't sound special or different enough to deserve all this praise.

"Lake Tahoe" carries much of the same vibe as "The Third Wave" off HOL- especially in the vocal sections which echo the Popol Vuh choral parts from Herzog's 'Nosferatu'. Truly gorgeous on headphones (how I'm listening at this moment).

Really the 2nd and 3rd songs on this, even with their stripped down instrumental pallette of mainly piano, bass and drums, are classic Bush in their lovely weirdness. Very powerful.

what's the difference between saying 'sounds like bland new age muzak' and 'this sounds like new age music'

i mean, thank you for pointing out that it sounded like the bad kind of new age music; that was nice of you

Because "New Age music" tends to cover quite a broad canvas. The Penguin Cafe Orchestra and some half decent ambient often gets lumped in with the blander, more mediocre stuff.

I am genuninely amazed at the reviews this album is getting. This album sounds so much to me like bland, New Age muzak that I'm surprised at some of the hostile comments above. Just because KB isn't very "uptempo" these days obviously doesn't mean she has to be musically uninventive (which is what I meant by "bland" in case there are any more tiresome dissections of that word). I'll give it more listens, but it sounds to me insipid and very weak musically: not really pop, ambient or classical, but a mediocre mish mash of all three. On The Hounds of Love she created a fantastic blend of those things - now it sounds predictable and stale to me.

the vinyl edition of this is seriously incredible. worth the £20 or £25 or whatever is being charged for it.

What is it? Just the quality?

yeah just reaaaally nicely mastered on good quality vinyl, 1 or 2 tracks per side.

New video set to my favorite part of my favorite song on the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKPHA3_cBus

enjoyed this today after a walk in deep snow. i love how much silence there is on the album, or the first few tracks anyway - the uncanny way she captures the stillness that follows heavy snowfall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsXhtJ9BTJA

This is the most beautiful thing I have heard all year... Astonishing. (thanks to Geeta on twitter for the heads up)

Wow.

i so wish there was a version of this album that took out the Elton John verses

it's just so fucking magical up to then then it's all Elton barreling into the track yuck

I keep forgetting that Misty is one of the best songs of this rapidly-ageing decade

Still a fantastic listen. Have warmed to the rest of it more or less. The song with Elton stillsounds like a bad "Red Shoes" B-side.

I'd be proud to have Rolf Harris on a record of mine tbh

― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Thursday, 10 November 2011 18:00 (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

... errrrrrrrrrrr

I had somehow forgotten to listen to this when it came out, possibly because I was so turned off by the idea of Director's Cut. But when it popped up on shuffled I thought it was really lovely.

Scots 'have 421 words' for snow

Lovely record, but pretty seasonal eh?

btw if you bought the vinyl and are in need of cash it seems to be relatively highly priced http://www.discogs.com/sell/release/3242669?ev=rb

This is majorly hitting the spot this morning in snowy New Jersey. Her most beautiful of the "comeback" records for me.

Stephen Fry track puts me off this record nowadays

It's 50 Words equivalent of the Rolf Harris one on Aerial

Great record. Snows come out in Vancouver so it's on my mind

This could be an ECM album until Elton swans in and kills the mood.

‘Misty’ is the standout track on this...not enough sex with snowmen songs in my opinion...

also just came on to say this is VERY ecm! if only Weber could have played on it :-(

it's grown on me a huge amount since release, and I find it fairly weird it was produced so close to Director's Cut which I think overall doesn't stand up well.

the only listenable thing elton john has ever done.

I liked his other snowy track, “Nikita”.

‘Misty’ off this is one of the best things she’s ever done...

Thanks ILM for sending me on another Kate Bush kick

I love this album.