Customer Reviews

Birds

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

a lot better than the dopey description from Sony. Runga has turned a corner in her songwriting - she comes to the table here with sophisticated songs about romance, break up, regret, hope that are mature, intelligent, and altogether something that would make you think of the Elvis Costello-Burt Bachrach collaboration. She is helped in no small measure by having Neil Finn, the southern Hemisphere's Paul McCartney, on board to lead the band, weave intricate and often heartbreaking harmony, and apply a certian Crowded House accent to Runga's impressive arrangements.
I'm not sure what the point of describing the recording space is, because Runga puts a lot of stock in the ambient quality of her music, live or studio. And don't get me wrong she's not some Kiwi Enya or Loreena McKennit or, perish the thought, Tori Amos. Instead, you have one of this planet's most intelligent writers delivering a group of songs thematically symbolized by the tranistory life of birds. Maybe not since Poe, or Mary Oliver, has someone really got it how that analogy seems to resonate for us trapped on the ground. In any case, there's a lot more at play than there ever used to be in Bic's recordings. My guess is that the live CD with Dave Dobbin and Tim Finn had a lot to do with this shift in gravitas. What used to be filed under "guilty pleasure" is a lot more required listening these days.
Maybe it's just the timing. Having just seen someone I love fly away.....

Just when you thought that bic runga couldn't improve on her multi platinum alubums drive and beautiful collison, she suprises her fans once again with birds. This CD is absolutely incredible. ITs completely unique. Its nothing that you have heard from anyone before, especially bic. I would often get angry when i heard her draw comparisons to jewel or other pop singers, but with this album, she truly stands alone.

Tracks 1-11 are all incredible. The Standouts are 1)Winning arrow, 2)Say after me 4) Birds, 5) Ruby Nights 8)Captured 10)Blue Blue heart 11)Its over. This is bic rungas best cd by far. Even though her 3 cds can all stand on their own and are differrent from each other, Birds is the only one the is produced by bic runga herself, leaving the listener with a more pure insight into bics soul. This is truly a beautiful album. I can't stop listening to it! Buy it immediately. Worth the wait. Thanks Bic! I love you!

This newest release from Bic Runga is breath-taking. Birds has tracks with a wide variety of styles - from acoustic to ambient sub-pop. "Blue blue Heart" is my favorite track but "No Crying No More" and "winning Arrow" are fantastic. Runga's lyrics are complex and sophisticated - her observations of the struggles and pleasures of everyday life are articulate and blend beautifully with her music. If you like her, check out Gretchen Lieberum and her new album, "Siren Songs." Both are great albums you can slip on for some perfect sensuous mood music - perfect for an intimate setting.

Sometimes an artist comes along that stops you in your tracks, and Bic Runga is one of those. Impossible to categorize, impossible to shake off or forget.

With lyrics and melodies that literally seem to come from another place in the heart than those of any other singer, she moves the listener with an entirely unique emotional vocabulary. A brilliant songwriter, a hypnotically captivating vocalist.

Though often with a light touch and a vaguely jazzy feel, these songs in the dark at 3AM are enormously moving. Haunting, heartbreaking yet sometimes playfully inviting, this is a masterwork, a classic, a revelation.

Laurie Anderson once said that talking about music is like dancing about architecture, and here we have a perfect example. The English language is so limited... there have to be words beyond exquisite, beyond beautiful...

Seek out the Special Edition which contains a 5 song live DVD recorded at the Civic Theatre in Auckland, along with two videos. It's pricey but worth every penny and more.

'Birds' is the most mature album from Bic Runga yet. Where 'Drive' and 'Beautiful Collision' were a little more playful, this album is a little more soulful, a little more dark, yet still as beautiful (if not more) as her first two efforts.

Bic has always sounded confident in her delivery, but this album shows her voice at the very front of almost all of the tracks, with the album on the most part being stripped of any noise to take the emphasis away from Runga's exquisite voice and her ability to write romantic and dreamy songs.

Tracks like 'Ruby Nights', 'No Crying No More' and 'Captured' show just how far she has progressed since 'Drive'. Each of these songs presenting a deliberate, assured artist, completely justifying Runga's decision to move away from an album based around singles.

I became a fan of Bic Runga with her last CD. I thought her lyrics were fantastical and really clever and romantic. This new CD is much more mature sounding. It is a bit darker and seems to steal and mix things from a variety of genre here and there, but at the core is Bic. She has very catchy melancholy melodies and a richness in her guitars and all the instrumentation. Liked it better than her last. Would have given it 5 stars, but I always think it's not completely accurate as it seems skewed. Could it be 4 and a half?

Bic is getting better with each release. It is hard for me to hear such a mature album from her, I expected something a little younger. I think the fact that she produced this one herself allowed her to include less "single" oriented songs on this album. It is not cookie-cutter by any means! That also explains why it was not released in the USA. Right now I like the beginning of the album better than the end - but I know eventually I will flip-flop. If you like Bic, you will like this album. It is less cutesy and more bluesy than her others though (in a good way).

Birds is the long-awaited follow up to Bic's critically acclaimed Beautiful Collision. It's a different beast (bird?) altogether, taking her 70s and folk influences a little further. The live atmosphere of the album is cosy - listening to this album through headphones makes you feel as if you were there in the room when they were making this magical music.

The musical textures are much more subtle, yet Bic's voice is fine form, filling each song with the required emotion.

Highlights include the first single Winning Arrow, That's Alright, Say After Me, Birds, and the wonderfully off-beat Blue Blue Heart.

I was familiar with Bic Runga's singing and liked it very much. However, I was initially too cheap to shell out the $27 for this item. When I finally broke down and bought it, it was well worth the price. This is one of the best CDs in my collection. She has a hauntingly beautiful soft voice, sort of like a Norah Jones on acid. Don't let the price stop you, or you will be missing out on something special.

I have been a fan of Bic Runga for some time, and when I initially heard this album several years ago I did not like it at all. I couldn't find a single track that I wanted to listen to or felt offered anything to her musical repertoire. Over the years I have come back to this album because I appreciate the others and have found that it grows on me. I don't think that it's right to compare Birds to Drive or Beautiful Collision because this album is so distinct.

Where Beautiful Collision and Drive have a more upbeat sound (as a whole), Birds is a much mellower album that reminds me of songs like The Be All and End All. This isn't a bad thing, it's nice to listen to this expansion in her music and I would happily buy another album that she made that had the same sound. It is very reminiscent of lounge music or the comfortable setting of your sofa on a rainy day with a cup of tea. Some of the songs are very melancholic, but they all have a distinct voice about them and a very mature sound for all their simplicity.

Bic Runga's voice is much softer in this album than you will find on Beautiful Collision, it has a smoky undercurrent that radiates the powerful emotions of her songs very well and does greater justice than she probably gets credit for. This album is certainly more haunted and haunting than her previous work, but it really isn't all that different. If you look through her other songs carefully you will find that she has included on each album several songs that run in the same vein as Birds. I deeply enjoyed the song Blue Blue Heart, especially for its lyrical simplicity.

Birds is probably not the best place to begin with Bic Runga's music, and it probably isn't the best place to end. It's a more professional album than her others - from the sound, instrumental selections, and lyrics, but it's also very alienating to a fan if you're looking for more of the feeling she presented in Drive. Birds is an album that falls somewhere in the middle of the songs you are used to hearing from her, and it's a very pleasant change once you become used to it. I am almost entirely convinced that if I didn't know Bic Runga and started with Birds I'd be disappointed by the majority of her other work or vice versa, and that is probably why when this was the last album I heard from her I felt a little cheated.

It's well worth the purchase, but it's also well worth a download to see if you like the sound before you commit to buying the entire album.