Often imitated, but never equalled, the inimitable Ms Bush – once voted one of the country’s greatest ever Britons – has recently been decrying the demise of the album as an art form, believing it to be on the endangered list. As part of her own personal battle to save it, this latest long player – her first completely new material since 2005’s Aerial – is a classically conceived concept album based on themes of wintry landscapes, maudlin myths and eternal childhood. Coming in at a mere seven tracks, but with a running time of over an hour, not once does it feel overlong.
Some famous friends are on hand to lend their skills: Elton John’s voice is almost jarring as he duets with Kate on Snowed In at Wheeler Street – a tale of immortally timeless, and forever separated lovers. While Stephen Fry’s cut-glass spoken words lend a hand – Tubular Bells style – as he narrates Bush’s made-up 50 Words for Snow, on the eponymous track, based around the erroneous Eskimo myth, with each nonsense syllable as quirkily eccentric as fans would expect.
A notable newbie to the list of Bush’s collaborators also comes from closer to home, as Kate enlists the choirboy skills of her son, Albert – Bertie – on the opening track, Snowflake. It’s a kind of lateral homage to The Snowman, in which Bush Jr. takes the higher range part that his mother might once have inhabited herself, to chart the epic journey of a snowflake during its decent from the clouds to the “so loud” world below. “Keep falling, I’ll find you,” his mother sings in counterpoint, as her melancholy piano chimes inexorably towards impact; an almost Freudian wish to prevent the greater ‘fall’ that all humans must make on their journey into adulthood: the loss of innocence.
Bush’s great genius has always been an unerring ability to recreate the wonders of childhood amidst highly adult, sometimes quietly disturbing areas of the psyche. Getting what has become a virtual brand of mystery and beauty to balance seamlessly within the context of an aural landscape is considerably harder than it might seem. But 50 Words might well be Kate’s first album since 1985’s Hounds of Love to stake a claim as the artist’s most perfectly weighted collection. Hounds will probably – and quite rightly – always be seen as her greatest masterpiece, but this utterly enchanting winter wonderland of music will quickly become another hugely beloved record among fans.
-Keith Tomlinson-
