“I was born in a cloud/Now I am falling/I want you to catch me/Look up and you'll see me,” Kate Bush croons, opening her 10th album, 50 Words for Snow, with an appropriately ethereal set of lines that could sound banal coming out of any mouth other than Bush's, who has a knack for connecting human emotion to the magical and invented. 50 Words for Snow is perhaps her slowest burning record — don't look for the rabble rousing of “Hounds of Love” or “Get Out of My House” here. Instead, it's a deeply contemplative record that relies on little more than Bush's piano and ever more weathered vocals, exploring stark emotional territory in seven expansive and evocative tracks. The album is more of a complete experience than one in which you find individual songs to pull out, with each song stretching past seven minutes, though the propulsive “Wild Man,” Elton John duet as supernatural love story “Snowed in at Wheeler Street” and swirling title track, featuring spoken word by Stephen Fry, all are standouts. It's an album that once again affirms Bush's talents and desire to stretch musically and thematically past her already formidable catalog.

Also available on CD.