Liking this a lot. I still think that Drive is basically perfect on its own terms (terms which include my having internalised it over the years); and, while I haven't taken it as much to heart, I reckon the more varnished Beautiful Collision is also really rather good; but Birds is somehow different from both again, and possibly her best yet. She's retained the delicacy, prettiness and ache of her earlier records, but there's more going on with this latest album, making for a richer and in some ways sweeter concoction.
For one, there's a more soulful edge to this music, in a slow burning Dusty Springfield kind of way ("Say After Me" and "If I Had You" are good examples), not just in the singing, but in the writing and arrangements, too. I'm also reminded of Carole King in places; Birds is wreathed in a backwards-looking, late 60s-through-to-70s singer-songwriter garb, though done with a modern touch. None of Runga's facility with mood and melody has been lost, but now there's also sometimes a swagger to the songwriting which is striking when compared to the (deliberate) heart-in-mouth tentativities of Drive and, to a lesser extent, Beautiful Collision (compare the way it opens, with the bright piano introduction that rings in "Winning Affair", to "Drive" or "When I See You Smile") - my favourite, though, is "Blue Blue Heart", a quirky, atypical, old fashioned-sounding piano number near the end.
