Kate Bush: 'Wild Man' - Single review

They're like buses, Kate Bush albums. You wait years and years, and then, er, an old one with a flashy paint job comes along, quickly followed by a brand-spanking new one moments later! Hot on the heels of reworks project Director's Cut, Bush has driven up with 50 Words for Snow. 'Wild Man' trails the first proper new album in six years from one of England's most cherished songwriters, and in an internet age where 12 months out of the spotlight has people casually flinging around words like "comeback", Bush doesn't do herself any favours when it comes to damping down expectations. The truth is though, she doesn't really need to.

'Wild Man' starts with an insistent riff, simple-as-can-be click-drums, and Bush's understated, breathy, half-spoken vocals before her words twist and turn into a double-tracked self-harmony and off-the-rails chorus. The vivid lyrics are denser than most English A-Level texts ("The schoolmaster of Darjeeling said/ We saw you by the Tengboche monastery/ You were playing in the snow/ You were banging on the doors") and demand closer attention. It's nothing groundbreaking or world-changing, but the four-minute odd radio edit is a lush slice of beauty that the charts have been gagging for. The full seven minutes add a bit more atmosphere and, on this showing, 50 Words of Snow is threatening an avalanche of long-overdue loveliness.

Listen to Kate Bush's 'Wild Man' below: