Birdy - 'Birdy'

Birdy - We first tipped you to Birdy -- aka Jasmine Van Den Bogaerde -- last April when the fifteen-year-old singer/songwriter from Lymington, England self-released via youtube a sullen, piano/voice version of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love" (video below)...flash forward to the present where Birdy's self-titled major label debut album, filled with more weary, angst-laden takes on mostly contemporary alt-pop hits (Phoenix, Fleet Foxes, Postal Service), gets a Stateside issue after scoring well in the U.K. last November// Release: Birdy (March 20, Warner Brothers) // Sounds like: Tori Amos' infamous piano ballad versions of Led Zeppelin and Nirvana twenty years ago have made the stripped and slowed cover a "standard" issue but Birdy's shy yet straightforward readings, tender, quavering voice and smart song choices ("1901" is particularly inspired) still yield small pleasures...the album's one original song -- "Without A Word" -- is a promising start...

Quote: I think it's just like the feeling and emotion with a song and when I'm writing it's just that feeling of being somewhere else, in a different world...and I suppose I love getting that across to the audience and connecting with them." // What we like: Birdy's stark and stripped version of the "Skinny Love" is everything it should be -- for better or worse -- an adolescent's reading of a song that's heavy on the piano drama emotionalism and light on soulful nuance...Not everything works here -- "People Helping People" and James Taylor's "Fire & Rain" fall flat -- but when the the right melody matches Birdy's interpretive skills ("1901", "Shelter") the effect is disarmingly effective...

Birdy - "1901" (Phoenix cover) (from Birdy)

Birdy - "Skinny Love" (Bon Iver cover) (from Birdy)