Baby Bird: Box Set [Import, Original recording remastered]

Baby Bird | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 18, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 6
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Import [Generic]
• ASIN: B00006LEOA
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,420 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Swinging from Tree to Tree

2. Happy Bus

3. It's Okay

4. Bug in a Breeze

5. Sha Na Na

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. May We

2. But Love

3. Good Weather

4. Not About a Girl

5. Dustbin Liner

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. In the Morning

2. You'll Get a Slap

3. This Beautiful Disease

4. Planecrash Xmas

5. In the Country

See all 18 tracks on this disc

Disc: 4

1. Metal Waterpistol

2. Cheap Astronaut

3. Lead Cloud

4. It's Alright Dad, Isn't It

5. Grandma Begs to Be 18 Again

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

UK box-set featuring five of the original lo-fi albums, 'I Was Born A Man' (1995), 'Bad Shave' (1995), 'Fatherhood' (1996), 'The Happiest Man Alive' (1996), 'Dying Happy' (1997), remastered in conjunction with Stephen Jones aka Baby Bird & one additional disc, 'The Black Album', featuring 18 previously unreleased tracks. Six paper sleeves housed in a slimline box with 18-page booklet. Castle. 2002.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest lo-fi songwriter, January 28, 2003

By 

mathew (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Baby Bird: Box Set (Audio CD)

The scene: A flat in Sheffield in 1985. An unemployed overweight middle-aged man
fights off boredom by writing songs. With no musical training, he does his
best to record them using a four track tape deck, a guitar, and a cheap synth
and drum machine.

A few years later, he has around 400 songs on cassette, mostly untitled,
kept in a plastic bag. Major record labels are completely uninterested.
Friends persuade him to release some of the songs on a CD, as is. A music
publishing deal pays for a run of 1000 discs, and "I Was Born A Man" is
released.

The album sells out by word of mouth. Reviews are overwhelmingly positive.
Three more albums are put out, with postcards for listeners to vote on
their favorite tracks. The limited releases sell out and become highly
valuable collectors' items. Suddenly every record company is calling.

So Baby Bird the solo artist went on to become Babybird the band and have some
UK hit singles. Sure, they were pretty good, but somehow something important
had been lost in the chaos of suddenly selling half a million singles and
playing packed gigs in London.

These are the original four track recordings. They might be musically crude in
places, but they have an honesty and soul that the slick commercial Babybird
albums lack. The songwriting is eccentric, poetic, down-to-earth, witty,
wistful, brilliant. One man pouring his soul into his music.

"Wouldn't let me see you, like an angel swimming in hell, now I know the reason
why, wish I'd pushed the doorbell."

If I could make just one album as good as Baby Bird's, I could die happy.
This boxed set has six of them. They're all good. It's a crying shame this
man hasn't achieved recognition in the USA.

The original quintet of albums has been remastered by Stephen Jones (Baby
Bird), with high end studio equipment used to extract as much as possible from
the master cassettes. The songs are noticably clearer than on the original
releases, while keeping their lo-fi charm. So yes, the box set is worth buying
even if you have all the original CDs.

The mysterious sixth "black album" contains 18 previously unreleased tracks
from the bag of tapes. Though not quite up to the standard of the previous
five, there are some great songs here. In style, it's perhaps closest to
"Dying Happy".