Album Review: Birdy - Birdy

Birdy - Birdy

Earlier this year, a gentle piano led cover of Bon Iver's Skinny Love crept into the UK top 40. Having been Fearne Cotton's Record oo the Week on Radio 1, the lovely, stripped-back version of the song spent a couple of months in the charts, peaking at number 17.

7 million YouTube hits later and 15 year old Jasmine Van den Bogaerde, better known as Birdy, releases her eponymously titled debut album. It includes the single Skinny Love alongside a series of cool indie cover versions and one original composition.

The official line is that the album is predominantly covers to allow the 15 year old time to study for her GCSE's, rather than writing and arranging her own music. What this means, however, is that it's effectively an X-Factor-esque album of karaoke cover versions and so I'm not 100% sure what the point of the album is.

Putting that to one side, however, it's a blooming great record. Birdy has been careful to choose very hip covers and so you'll find versions of songs by The XX, the Postal Service, the Fleet Foxes, Francis and the Lights and the Naked and Famous alongside a James Taylor cover and her own composition (the lovely Without a Word).

The highlight is probably her cover of Cherry Ghost's Ivor Novello award winning People Help The People, although it's a record that could be covered by almost anyone and still sound terrific.

In many ways, this album reminds me a little bit of kd lang's Hymns of the 49th Parallel. Not so much stylistically but more conceptually - Birdy is an album full of distinctive and very different interpretations of already beautiful songs. As I say, waiting for a combination of original material and covers may have been more credible but as it is this is a likeable and lovely album from a great young talent.

(And, if you're planning to buy/listen, go for the deluxe version of the marvellous 9 minute closing track Comforting Sounds.)