Antipodean beauty Bic Runga is a big name in New Zealand. Very big. So mammoth, in fact, that her first two albums, Drive (1996) and Beautiful Collision (2000) have both gone 18 times platinum since their release; and her third offering, Birds, is set to soon follow suit. Despite moderate success outside of her home country, Runga has thus far failed to replicate her awesome sales achievements north of the equator, but there's no better time to contend. With the current musical clime being more pro-female than a Germaine Greer fan convention, artists like the Katies Tunstall, Melua and Bush have paved the way over the past year for female domination; the groundwork has been laid for a Runga chart triumph. Enlisting the help of the ubiquitous Neil Finn for a second collaborative effort, Birds is awash with delicate, breathy vocals, understated atmospherics and shimmering, downbeat love songs. There's no overblown pomp, in-your-face chord changes or big choruses on display here; Runga's subtle change in direction has seen her shy away from the radio-friendly pop motifs that Beautiful Collision was profuse with. Opener Captured sets the pace, its polished melancholy gradually building to an orchestral close. Finn's string arrangements are also notable on the gorgeous Say After Me, a 60s Bacharach-esque classic replete with warm harmonies and ambient instrumentation; No Crying No More sees her turn her hand to the sparse alt-country that Gillian Welch specialises in, and Winning Arrow could easily be an early Cardigans ditty. Most tracks take the jazzy, lounge-singer approach, though; and while the likes of Blue Blue Heart, Ruby Nights, and If I Had You provide a serene background soundtrack, they also become slightly tiresome and samey at intervals, perhaps due to the 'live take' recording method used by Runga here. Nevertheless, the brooding clarity and wistful lucidity of her voice is not something to be sneered at, and extricates her from the plethora of unexceptional female artists lingering around the Top 40 at present. If she were a bird, Bic Runga would certainly not be an endangered species; but one that's a little bit special, all the same.
