Bird

Bird York | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 9, 1999)
• Label: Blissed Out Records
• ASIN: B00000I8NQ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,599 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

York's sultry vocals and songwriting sensibility bring to mind Portishead and Everything but the Girl. As with those groups, she weds acoustic instrumentation with heavy rhythmic grooves and mixing techniques invented by dub, techno, and dance recording artists. The understated, rolling funkiness and spiky, heavily processed guitar heard here also recall U2's Achtung, Baby. Lyrically York tackles difficult subject matter (a child's obsession with firearms in "Bought a Gun," a runaway teenage girl's sexual awakening in "Open Wider") with sensitivity and intelligence. Ultimately, Bird is exquisite--from the opening track to the lulling, emotionally abundant denouement of "Breathe Deeply." --Michael Wells

Product Description

Sensual, smoky, groove rock. Great lyrics, unpredictable melodic hooks. Voted one of the "Top Ten Emerging Artists" by the Editors of Amazon.com.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartfelt and full of life experience, March 26, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Bellevue, Wa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bird (Audio CD)

Bird is an amazing recording. In an industry full of overproduced, undertalented puppets on strings, it is refreshing to hear a true artist. Kathleen York has a wondeful voice, full of emotion. Bird has the ability to play with your feelings. Hopeful one moment, sad the next. It is a very rich recording, with multiple layers of instrumentation and vocals.

At times you feel like you are in a dream directed by David Lynch. This is a wonderful CD. I recommend listening to it at night in a dark room, with a good cabernet and many cigarettes.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great debut, December 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bird (Audio CD)

I don't think this CD will be leaving my player for a while! Kathleen York has a great voice, and it's put to great use here. And while I usually tend to ignore the lyrics when I listen to music, 'Open Wider' and 'Bought a Gun' have great lyrics. The only song I could live without is Prozac Day...the rest is gorgeous.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Bird's A Keeper, April 26, 2000

By 

Scott Barker (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bird (Audio CD)

Kathleen York is a true renaissance woman - a brilliant and sensitive singer/songwriter and unparallelled actress. It's no surprise that her most recent album - Bird - is composed feet to beak of trenchant observations about the human condition; songs that walk the wire between personal revelation and universal declaration. Where many albums glide along on the strength of one or two good songs, Bird doesn't have a weak track on it. Beginning with the plaintive "Come Home," York takes off for the sky, showing how effective spare, poetic lyrics and an uncluttered production can be when combined with a voice that's captivating and urgent. Although it has become popular for singers to go for sheer volume, York wisely chooses to pull her listeners in rather than push them back. Her voice is soft, almost conspiratorial on powerful songs like "Bought A Gun" and "Save Me," making one feel that they're present at the very inception of the song, integral to its very development. In an era when so many albums end up unplayed after a year or two, Bird is a definite keeper for a lifetime.