Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)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.....
Click Here to see more reviews about: Birds (Tour Edition)
Special Australian Tour Edition Of New Zealand Siren, Bic Runga's third album Birds. Includes a bonus five-track Live CD recorded on her tour of New Zealand in late 2005. Tracks on the bonus disc, 'Birds', 'Blue Blue Heart', 'Ruby Nights', 'Listen' and 'The Be All and End All'. Birds is a superb distillation of Bic Runga's incredible songwriting talent and her firm grasp on the universal language of romance. Undercurrents of subtle melancholy in songs like the breathtaking and spacious 'Captured' and 'Say After Me' flow through to uplifting notes of hope in first single 'Winning Arrow' and 'If I Had You'. Taking the role of album producer herself, Bic convened her band that included Neil Finn (Piano and Guitar) in Auckland's Monte Cecilia House in August 2005.Built in 1879, with wonderfully detailed architecture complete with parquet floors, elaborate ceiling roses, marble fireplaces and four-storeyed tower overlooking a wooded park. Bic's approach for the album harked back to jazz recordings of the 50s and beyond and the timeless pop recordings from before single instrument track-laying became the norm in the 1970s.There is a natural intimacy between instruments and voices playing live in the same room. By the time an eight piece string section and further instrumentation including French horn, flute, harp and clarinet had been added, the intricate arrangements and richly textured songs took shape. Sony. 2005.
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