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50 Words for Snow

50 Words for Snow is the tenth studio album by English singer-songwriter Kate Bush, released on 21 November 2011. It was the second album released on her own label, Fish People, and Bush's first all-new material since Aerial (2005). The album was promoted by the single "Wild Man"; a further single, "Snowflake", followed in October 2024, alongside a short film in support of War Child.

50 Words for Snow was released on 21 November 2011, Bush's second album of that year, following Director's Cut. The album consists of seven songs "set against a background of falling snow" and has a running time of 65 minutes. The songs "Lake Tahoe" and "Misty" are the two longest songs in Bush's catalogue and her only individual songs that are over ten minutes long. In November 2018, Bush released box sets of remasters of her studio albums, including 50 Words for Snow.

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."

"Everyone will know that events in Tibet have taken a terrible turn. I want to express my sadness at such a gentle and spiritual culture suffering so greatly. I am so shocked by the desperate measures being taken by people whose only way to call out for help is by taking these horrific actions. I would feel ashamed if I didn’t express my feelings. I just hope the world is listening."

In an interview with the American radio station KCRW, Bush said that the idea for the album's title song came from thinking about how the Eskimo have 50 words for snow, which led her to use fantastical words and phrases, such as "spangladasha", "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 (she had just started working with him and praised his "brilliant drumming"), 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.

The album's opening track, "Snowflake", was written specifically to use the high choir-boy voice of Bush's son Albert, who sang the role of a falling snowflake in a song expressing the hope of a noisy world soon being hushed by snowfall. A radio edit of the song was released as a single on 25 October 2024, in conjunction with Bush's short animated film, Little Shrew, which the song soundtracks.

"Lake Tahoe" features choral singers Stefan Roberts and Michael Wood joining 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 videos were released online to promote the album, one to accompany a section of "Misty" (called "Mistraldespair"), the other to accompany a section of "Wild Man". "Mistraldespair" was directed by Bush and animated by Tommy Thompson and 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-and-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.

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