50 Words for Snow

Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
Critic Score
Based on 38 reviews
2011 Ratings: #7 / 1031
Year End Rank: #39
User Score
Based on 588 ratings
2011 Rank: #109
Liked by 84 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Guardian

50 Words for Snow is extraordinary business as usual for Bush, meaning it's packed with the kind of ideas you can't imagine anyone else in rock having.

100
NOW Magazine
One of the year's most imaginative albums.
100
The Skinny

It’s 50 Words for Snow’s improbable fusion of drama, magic and absurdity that makes it so compelling.

100
Louder Than War
Kate Bush was always going to be an artist that got better with age, not tied into the tedious teenage concept of pop she is a real artist who bears her soul and is not afraid to dig deep and take risks.
100
The Independent

A lush, immersive work which is sonically more homogeneous than her earlier albums, reflecting the conceptual solidity of its wintry theme, in which fantastical, mythic narratives are allowed to take shape under the cover of its snowy blanket.

100
The Telegraph

To let her quietly beautiful 10th album whisk you away you need a more reflective setting. 50 Words for Snow should be heard standing alone at icy window panes, gazing out.

90
Consequence of Sound

While looking for 50 Words For Snow, she has found 50 other original ways to express herself effortlessly, creating another intriguing piece of work.

90
Clash
She's brilliant, sometimes inspired, and this tenth studio album finds her gifts undiminished.
90
DIY
Another impossibly beautiful and individually brilliant album. A perfect accompaniment to those long and dark wintry nights.
90
Northern Transmissions

50 Words For Snow proves that Kate Bush is still one of the most innovative and talented songwriters of our time.

90
Beats Per Minute

These tracks are sparse but airtight, haunting but unrelentingly gorgeous

90
Spectrum Culture
On the heels of May’s Director’s Cut, from its jazz-influenced minimalist piano to its warped use of Bush’s husky voice to the complex fantasies, Snow proves that time has not dulled the artist who made it okay for women to be weird in music.
90
musicOMH

It’s absorbing and enchanting without having to resort to formulaic song structures, pop thrills or radio-friendly catchiness.

90
Drowned in Sound

And jolly spectacular it is too, which is never a guarantee

85
Paste
It's a linguistic lesson you never asked for, or even wanted, but also one you'll never forget.
85
The Line of Best Fit
It proves her credentials of distinct maturity as well as exhibiting her ability to experiment successfully with deep-set and sombre but thoroughly captivating music.
85
Pitchfork

Her best music, this album included, has the effect of putting one in the kind of treasured, child-like space-- not so much innocent as open to imagination-- that never gets old.

80
Evening Standard
Kate Bush sings erotically throughout. Make of that what you will.
80
The Arts Desk
Kate Bush has always steered a dangerous course between pure genius and mannerist excess.
80
Q Magazine
There is only one real slip - Stephen Fry's mood shattering appearance on the title track.
80
The Irish Times
A sublime achievement, as uncompromisingly original as anything Bush has ever done.
80
Mojo
Sounds miraculously unburdened by its conceptual weight.
80
Uncut
From austere, absurd materials, the cumulative effect is remarkable.
80
Sputnikmusic
Once again, Kate's found a new sound world to operate in and made an effortlessly great album that works both as a conceptually cohesive whole and as a set of standlone songs as warm and comforting as a roaring fire.
80
No Ripcord

If every song here had been of the same standard as the opening suite of three, and the final two, 50 Words For Snow would have been an all-time classic

80
AllMusic

While it shares sheer ambition with Scott Walker's The Drift and PJ Harvey's Let England Shake, it sounds like neither; Bush's album is equally startling because its will toward the mysterious and elliptical is balanced by its beguiling accessibility.

80
PopMatters
A remarkably delicate, often meandering (though never purposeless) song cycle revolving around snow, imagination and longing, set to rich, spiraling piano compositions and deep open spaces.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes

It's human connection despite the odds that has been at the heart of Bush's music from the beginning. With 50 Words for Snow, she casts the theme in a bolder and bleaker light than ever before.

75
A.V. Club

While the album is as icy as its title implies, there’s a dormant warmth to 50 Words that compensates for its lack of hooks.

70
Slant Magazine

50 Words for Snow is a success not only because it's so challengingly bold and peculiar, but because it repackages Bush's usual idiosyncrasies in an entirely new form.

70
Under the Radar
At times, piano, strings, bass, and drums carefully follow Bush like members of her court through a series of meditations that move like falling snow, which she sometimes refers to directly or metaphorically within the lyrics.
70
SPIN
The overall dark, diaphanous sound here almost oversells the title, but it's impossible not to get lost in the drift.
70
NME
To hope for a ‘Running Up That Hill’ or a ‘Wuthering Heights’ would be to miss the point, and the subtle pleasures – there’s enough people walking the ways Kate cleared 30 years ago. Follow her footprints off the beaten path, and you’ll find some weird winter wonders.
70
Classic Rock
Britpop’s evergreen faerie queen lets England flake.
60
The Observer
This album is rather better when it is winking at you, rather than seeking to cryogenically preserve emotion.
fkasean
79

yeah i have a boyfriend you wouldn't know him i built him yesterday and he melted in the night

MAN
86

"50 Words for Snow" is almost immaculate! Absolutely stunning!

LukasLima
84

* Snowflakes (8/10)
* Lake Tahoe (7.5/10)
* Misty (9.5/10)
* Wild Man (8.5/10)
* Snowed In At Wheeler St. (8.5/10)
* 50 Words For Snow (7/10)
* Among Angels (8/10)

Nota Final: 81/100

PONTOS ADICIONAIS

• Vocais +1
• Composição +1
• Produção +1

Nota Final: 84/100

SEIS
65

The first track is extremely enjoyable.
The rest of the album is not as good.

30

her worst boring asf

htoany
67

it's a pleasant listen from start to finish and has some decent ideas to it but throughout the 65-minute runtime, 50 words for snow doesn't really engage me in the same way that kate bush's other work does.

still impressive that she dropped an album this good 33 years into her career though.

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Track List

1Snowflake
9:46
91
2Lake Tahoe
11:08
85
3Misty
13:32
90
4Wild Man
7:16
88
5Snowed In at Wheeler Street
8:05
87
650 Words for Snow
8:30
76
7Among Angels
6:48
81
Total Length: 1 hour, 5 minutes
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Added on: September 12, 2011