Something Else! sneak peek: Kate Bush, "Wild Man" (2011)

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“Wild Man,” the advance single from Kate Bush’s forthcoming LP is both a bold return to the magic, the unrealism, and the glittering whimsy of her early work — and a tip of the hat to her slightly more conventional hitmaking pop arias of the 1980s.

We rejoin Bush (appropriately enough, on an album to be called 50 Words For Snow) amidst the blinding flurries of winter, having come upon some strange creature — in keeping with the title, may I suggest the Abominable Snowman? — but rather than break for the hills, she finds herself in a moment of deep empathy with the outsider. Bush’s quiet murmurings to him, set against a lonely clanging guitar signature, are then suddenly subsumed in a rush of voices — and the chorus has arrived, like an angry mob of villagers. Just that quickly, Bush then recaptures the depth and myth of her 80s’ sound, as a wall of keyboards splashes across layer upon layer of vocals.

Brilliantly weird, undeniably beautiful, and very Kate Bush, “Wild Man” is a brisk return to form after the house-broken, far-too-normal meanderings of 2005’s Aerial, her last release of new material — not to mention the May 2011 remake project Director’s Cut, which rung out Bush’s earlier work like so much laundry on the line.

Kate Bush – Wild Man by antirecords

50 Words For Snow, to be issued on Nov. 21 by Anti- Records, is Kate Bush’s second release of the year, just six months after reworking her past material for Director’s Cut.. Guest musicians on its seven tracks, each set to a background of falling snow, include Elton John, Andy Fairweather Low and, on the title track, the British writer/broadcaster/raconteur Stephen Fry.

COMPLETE TRACK LIST
1: Snowflake
2: Lake Tahoe
3: Misty
4: Wild Man
5: Snowed In At Wheeler St
6: 50 Words for Snow
7: Among Angels

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Nick DeRiso