For Birdy, the plummy English teenager of Belgian/Dutch descent famed for a wistful Bon Iver cover, Fire Within marks a new beginning. 'Skinny Love' was recorded in 2010 by Jasmine Van Den Bogaerde at the tender age of 14. It featured on her eponymous debut album and while that successful venture was composed of piano-based interpretations of creditable indie tunes (covers of the xx, the Postal Service and the National indicate how left-field it was), Birdy's follow-up is all self-penned mid-tempo balladry.

Few will be unfamiliar with 'Wings', the chart-topping lead single. More soaring set-closer than obvious album opener (think Snow Patrol's 'Run'), nothing else on Fire Within tops the scale of that epic radio-friendly production, nor attempts to. Beyond 'Wings', weepy ballads abound. Lighters (or, making assumptions of Birdy's audience, mobiles) can be raised to the effective 'Heart of Gold' and second single 'No Angel', a stripped-back piano ballad co-written by Mumford & Sons man, Ben Lovett. Folk influences recur on the introspective 'Words as Weapons', which could conceivably be a hushed Mumford or Laura Marling number. At the power pop end of the spectrum, 'Light Me Up's 1980s gospel pulse allows Birdy, who takes her moniker from a childhood nickname, to go all Florence Welch with the booming vocals. And in the same dramatic mould as Adele's recent effort, 'Strange Birds' amounts to Birdy's Bond theme audition. But thereafter, though pleasant in sentiment, Fire Within tapers off to an underwhelming conclusion.

Throughout, Birdy avoids wide-eyed naïveté and melancholic angst that could be expected of a teenaged songwriter. A decade since the experienced pianist first composed original material, Birdy showcases maturity in her lyrics and an adept sensitivity in her voice with compositions as stark and emotionally candid as the cover art. That earnest voice gets only sparse accompaniment, though various collaborators and producers ensure the piano is frequently jettisoned in favour of strings and other instrumentation.

Listening to 'Wings', one wonders if Ms Van Den Bogaerde has benefitted from the commercial trail blazed by Florence and Adele. Clearly talented, Birdy is following her own understated course rather than courting the frantic route taken by Miley Cyrus and the look-at-me brigade. Both starlets may have flown the nest, but assembling an accomplished and three-dimensional selection of reflective songs, as Birdy has done on Fire Within, is surely a more mature statement than bowing to such conventions.


Review by Killian Barry |
THREE STARS