Top-20 countdown - no.01

Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow

Having a second Kate Bush album released in the same year as the previous one (even though Director's Cut was full of new versions of older tracks of hers) sounds outlandish even to the ears of her most ardent fans (in fact it has happened once before, back in 1978, with A Kick Inside and Lionheart being release in February and November of that year; the gap between is a personal best for her this time around, May to November). Yet she is here with us, with original material this time. And what material this is.

A wintry record, seemingly simpler than her previous ones, more organic and spontaneous. Not one of the seven songs (with more than 7 minutes duration for each) of the album is lacking from the rest. You want to listen them again and again, each time discovering something different, travelling to places far away, which in turn become familiar and closer because of her. With the help of collaborators like the prolific Elton John (who seems to be re-discovering his youth here), acclaimed actor Stephen Fry but also her son Bertie, Kate gives us her tenth album just as if she never was away from us. And we hope that she keeps on doing this in the future too.

Most of the text above has been first published as a review for free-press magazine FAGazine, issue 03












So far:

02. Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi
03. Tori Amos - Night Of hunters
04. Feist - Metals
05. Florence + The Machines - Ceremonials
06. Jamie Woon - Mirrorwriting
07. Acid House Kings - Music Sounds Better With You
08. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
09. When Saints Go Machine - Konkylie
10. James Blake - James Blake
11. Little Dragon - Ritual Union
12. P.J. Harvey - Let England Shake
13. Scott Matthew - Gallantry's Favorite Son
14. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
15. Patrick Wolf - Lupercalia
16. Gotye - Making Mirrors
17. Austra - Feel It Break
18. Soley - We Sink
19. Cat's Eyes - Cat's Eyes
20. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy