Kate Bush 50 Words for Snow
The Black Keys El Camino
Fish People
Nonesuch
I
was born in a cloud, now I am falling” sings Kate Bush. For ten minutes, she spends the opening track taking on the role of snowflake as it falls. That is as normal as this album gets. The title track is true to its name, featuring treasured eccentric Stephen Fry listing fifty words for the titular white stuff, so bizarre that they even sound out of place coming from his mouth. It’s a safe bet that the weather forecast won’t be warning the nation about Zhivagodamarbletash drifts, leaving neighbourhoods shimmerglisstened-in behind walls of phlegm de neige. Having spent an entire track on her 2005 album Aerial reciting 116 digits of π, Kate returns to her fixation with numbers and hassles him by counting the words with him. “Come on Joe, there’s just 32 more to go.” Despite the grandiose lengths of the tracks, from seven to thirteen minutes, the scale of the sound itself doesn’t follow - there are no buildups to spectacular orchestral finales, and for that reason, it is perfect. She portrays brilliantly the monochrome of endless forests of snow with a sparse sound, yet with countless different sounds coming from all directions, like a blizzard. A couple of percussive clicks here, a pulse of strings there, and a few exhalations as if Kate is trying to see her breath in the cold can be heard, but after just a few seconds, they never return. She hasn’t lost any of her weird, and definitely not her wonderful. By Nick Pollard
I
t’s Raw, old school Garage Blues with a slick finish. ‘El Camino’ is the seventh studio album by Blues rock duo The Black Keys and it’s certainly a doozy. Strangely, the first thing i noticed about this album was the not the enticing blues riffs; nor was it Dan Aerbach’s vocals which cut through the heavy sound to the please the ear. It was the production work, it is fantastic. Drummer/ Producer Patrick Carney has crafted the perfect blend of clean pounding drums, the distant and slightly distorted vocals and the dirty garage style guitars. While it may not be as “Bare bones” as the production of “The White Stripes”, it is still garage rock but made with care and detail. Some of these tunes will be on your mind for days, “Lonely boy” for example is a hell a start to the album, the opening riff really sets the tone and the rolling drums make this a perfect driving song (I can’t drive so i’m just assuming here). My personal favorite is the fourth track “Little Black Submarines”. The country style plucking of the acoustic guitar, the slow pace and the chords of an organ make you think that they’ve gone all ‘Johnny Cash’. That is until the two minute mark when the guitar distorts, the heavy rock rhythm of the drums slam and the ending guitar solo melts your face. Some tracks are better than others but every one is definitely worth repeated listening. This Album is a great effort, the high end production improves on the brilliant yet raw blues sound. I give it a well deserved 8/10. By Tom Hutchin
Audio Addict
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