Only an artist as seminal as Kate Bush can pull off unveiling two albums in one year. After having just released Director’s Cut in May, the eclectic singer is back again with the drop of 50 Words for Snow—the second album on her Fish People label. Taking inspiration from the Eskimo language’s possession of fifty words to describe snowfall, Bush
creates a self-contained environment with enough variety to capture a library of wintry emotions, narratives, and themes. The album’s stunning acoustic instrumentation mimics the fluctuating pattern of snow: from
the delicate piano which signals its arrival (“Snowflake”), to the gales encapsulating its unpredictability and potential to either create or destroy intimacy (“Snowed In At Wheeler Street”). In a style similar to a call and response, Bush skillfully manipulates her vocals to play off the meandering piano notes—echoing or responding— in a sort of perpetual duet, proving her voice to be as compelling a personification of natural forces as any instrument.