In these difficult times, musicians are no doubt grateful every time a song of theirs goes viral on TikTok, but it must be galling when it happens in a way that doesn’t sound much like you at all. Birdy’s 2013 song Wings has become known as “It Made Me Think of You” on the hyperactive social media platform, where its Coldplay-style piano emoting has been sped up to chipmunk levels to accompany clips of dogs, cats and children being remembered as puppies, kittens and smaller children.
Then again, it’s about time the singer-songwriter born Jasmine van den Bogaerde got to have some fun. Now 27, she was just 15 when she released her debut album back in 2011, a collection of 6 Music Dad-pleasing cover versions of bands including The National, Fleet Foxes and Phoenix, done in the style of the John Lewis Christmas ad. Her version of Bon Iver’s Skinny Love still has higher streaming numbers than the original.
She continued to sound uncannily mature as she shifted into original material, relocating to LA and Nashville for her last release, Young Heart, which was a set of breakup ballads inspired by Joni Mitchell and the Laurel Canyon sound. So it’s a grand surprise when Paradise Calling opens this album, racing along on a pumping Eighties drum beat, shining with synth glitter and giving off more energy than she has in over a decade of music. All of a sudden she’s in Dua Lipa territory and surely deserving of a proper chart hit.
She must have tired herself out quickly, though, because after that it’s mostly back to mid-paced and slower. The staccato strings of Raincatchers echoes the style and sound of Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting, while I Wish I Was a Shooting Star has a dramatic, cold feel when it drifts into its grandiose chorus. Your Arms finds her back in her comfort zone, sounding sad at the piano, though with a voice that sounds richer and a touch lower than on her earlier work.
Heartbreaker will cause toes to be tapped slightly more vigorously, and Automatic is another one that finds a bit more energy. Her confident vocals always hold their own amid the new, more electronic backdrop. Overall it’s a style that should make things more interesting on stage – she’s been touring for the first time since 2017 – but there’s still a sense of holding back from really cutting loose.
David Smyth
