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The Bird And The Bee

EMAILPRINTby The Bird And The Bee

The Bird And The Bee reviews
74
6.8 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
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Album Info

Label: Blue Note

Release Date: 23 January 2007

Discs: 1 disc

Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Electronic

Summary

Los Angeles-based singer Inara George teams with multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin for their first LP as The Bird And The Bee, which blends '60s pop, tropicalia, and electronic elements.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90

Hot Press

This is a brilliantly buoyant and wonderfully charming record that’ll suit almost every mood.

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83

Entertainment Weekly

Space-age pop that cunningly combines bossa nova languidity with Beach Boys-style lushness.

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80

NOW Magazine

Brilliantly catchy.

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80

Prefix Magazine

The project finds strength in synergy, working off each member's best qualities; they balance a dry vocal tone here with a melodramatic keyboard sigh there.

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80

Uncut

Remarkably alluring. [Apr 2007, p.93]

75

Los Angeles Times

Standing so close to cuteness is dangerous, but these two keep their noses clean.

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75

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Like a lot of the music of the boy-girl pop-duo genre, The Bird And The Bee can sometimes get overbearingly adorable... But mostly, it's a warm, cheerful distraction with enough bite to remain relevant through the summer and beyond.

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70

Sputnikmusic

Most of The Bird and the Bee is average, albeit highly danceable and fun, Pop music: worth the download, but hardly the purchase.

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70

Delusions of Adequacy

The Bird and the Bee is as light as a feather, for sure. It’s not throwaway, though; the darting melodies and twinkling keyboards are like some divine ringtone and the pair’s love of jazz standards is apparent in the harmonic reach and twists of their songs.

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70

All Music Guide

This is a record that gives up its secrets slowly, while being charming and delightful at every turn.

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70

Amazon.com

As intoxicating as a Brazilian breeze and ironic as a David Lynch night in L.A., the Los Angeles duo the Bird and the Bee make a soothingly hip, deliriously cool blend of pop.

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70

Blender

This is 21st-century lounge with a Manson heart — music for unwinding, or maybe plotting crazed revenge.

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70

PopMatters

The Bird and the Bee have created a sweet electronica-dusted pop sound with an easy jazz basis but a complex musicality.

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70

Rolling Stone

Very likable.

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70

Q Magazine

An odd mix, but a perfect setting for George's intoxicatingly sweet voice. [Apr 2007, p.117]

70

Observer Music Monthly

This faultless debut album will delight lovers of recent records by Nouvelle Vague and Roisin Murphy.

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62

cokemachineglow

This album maintains youth and vigor through dirty language and clean production, but eventually settles for something very middle-of-the-road.

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60

Pitchfork

The record fits snugly into a certain nameless musical genre that can be found in martini bars and designer-label boutiques the world over, a mish-mash of recognizable sounds and influences that's enjoyable but ultimately hollow.

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60

No Ripcord

The Bird and the Bee end up sounding like the soundtrack to some glossy drama about a bunch of over privileged kids living in Notting Hill.

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60

musicOMH.com

Notwithstanding the occasional background music tendencies, The Bird And The Bee is a solid debut which will undoubtedly attract most connoisseurs of intelligent pop.

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60

The Guardian

It's impressive - but so cool and calculated it can be hard to like.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Seth C. gave it a10:
Lushly addictive. Truly ambrosia for the ears.

Justo gave it a9:
I was surprised by the negative comments on here - I think this is a great album, its my favourite of the year so far. If you like stereolab or broadcast, you'll like this - except its more accessable, more catchy, and more poppy in my opinion.

mike f gave it a0:
caught b&b warming up 4 l. allen at ef in phila. 4/10/07. they did most of their album. reminded me of a hs talent show performance where b&b would neither win, place nor show. TRULY F'N HORRIBLE. lead "singer" ("whisperer") had skirt so short i eyeballed her lunchbox. this assembly, i refuse to call it a band, was so insanely talentless that words fail. save yourself a burn & burn your $ before buying this record. sucks > ramoras.

matt a gave it an8:
I don't really see how publications like Pitchfork and Cokemachineglow can justify giving this album a much lower score than they gave to last year's The Blow-Paper Television. The album's are quite comparable in both style and overall quality. In fact, if I had to choose, I would prefer this album. There is no stand-out single like "Parentheses," but overall this is much more consistent and varied.

J C gave it a5:
Bland music and some highly irritably vocals.

Erin K gave it an8:
This is a great album. Its fun, its interesting, it takes you to 1960's Brazil. While some of the songs may sound a little redundant on a first listen, with each further listen you can hear more and more intricate layers of vocals, instrumentals and dabbles of electronic. Definitely something worth checking out!

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