Jade Bird

It is a tremendous debut and the quality is beyond question.

‘Jade Bird’ has the edge of an assured debut album and is a startling introduction to a British talent who looks set to take the States by storm.

It's a mode that has little time for novelty or subtlety but plenty of potential to crowd-please on both sides of the pond. [June 2019, p. 108]

She makes the listener feel close to her time and time again throughout the album, from the blinding light of guitar-led anthems like “Lottery” and “I Get No Joy” to the pure fun of “Going Gone” and the almost terrifying gravity and proximity of “If I Die”. It’s this vulnerability that makes her approach feels so real, and that demands that we attend to her music and take something real away from it.

With relatively strain-free production that sprinkles orchestral textures across folk-rock arrangements, Bird also shows an affinity for lifting the emotional temperature at lower volume levels.

Some of these big numbers, however, rely on cheesy tropes that lack a degree of empathy. ... That’s not to say that Bird isn’t powerful in more vulnerable moments.

It’s a very digestible and fun debut LP.

Jade Bird is an album of loose change, a pocketful of shiny, well-written nuggets that might give off a lot of flash individually but when put together don’t equal the sum of their parts. Thankfully, Bird’s singular musical style--a chalky blend of roots-rock, country and pop--and her mighty, mighty roar cancel out any thematic fumbles entirely.

In all, this is a solid debut full of well-written songs and plenty of attitude that delivers on the promise of her early singles.

Across twelve polished tracks, Jade switches from piano ballad to stomping singalong and back again, full of bold choruses and raw, ricocheting vocals.