Album Of The Week: Kate Bush 50 Words For Snow

To this point, I've lived a full and happy life without ever much considering the works of Ms. Kate Bush. I knew the singles, sure, and I had a general understanding of her influence on later art-pop spell-weavers like Bat For Lashes. I knew other people's covers of her songs, which range from transcendent (Maxwell's "This Woman's Work") to annoying (the Futureheads' once-hyped "Hounds Of Love"). But the singles, with their twisty helium squeals and their non-Euclidean melodies, never convinced me to dig much further. For the most part, Bush has been, for me, one of those canonical blind spots that everyone has. But her new 50 Words For Snow is the sort of album that convinces skeptics like me to go back and reconsider.