Wallis Bird: Wallis Bird – review

Wallis Bird

Wallis Bird, the self-titled third album by the Hackney-based Irish songwriter, is a study in contrasts.

Across eleven songs, Bird alternates between political anthems and personal confessions, defiant growls and dissolving falsettos.  In a matter of moments, the roaring taunt “who’s listening now?” gives way to the soft spoken admission that “I sing songs about loving my life, but today I just don’t have the energy.”

This range of emotion is matched by Bird’s diverse musical style.  Drawing inspiration from acts as varied as Ani Difranco, Tom Waits and tUnE-yArDs, Bird ensures that each track is a surprise.   The influence of Dilate-era Ani Difranco comes through with particular clarity, as the percussive strumming and confrontational vocals of Ani classics like ‘Shameless’ echo throughout the album.

After two albums and just as many Meteor awards, Wallis Bird showcases an artist reflecting on the complexity of success.  On the album’s haunting opener, ‘Dress My Skin’, and ‘Become What I’m Supposed To’, Bird begins with an audible sigh.  Although its lyrics suggest trouble with a lover, ‘Dress My Skin’ could just as easily be about her struggle to maintain a private self behind an increasingly public persona.  In one striking moment, Bird splits the song’s first line — “you don’t know shit” — into two parts, with others’ shouting “you don’t know” and her shutting them all out, sharply saying “shit.”  And so even as she asserts her privacy, Bird seems to fear that, shit, she has already given away too much.

Moments like this are spread throughout the album as Bird’s layered production rewards close listening.  Additional voices and ambient noise flesh out the emotional texture of each track.  At the same time, the production repeatedly drops off and, without warning, reveals Bird’s voice standing alone, as if drawing the listener too close and then catching them in the act.

What unifies Wallis Bird is the sounds of the city.  Primarily written and recorded around the summer’s riots, it is an album of urban energy.  Sirens, crowds and traffic all seep into the tracks.  “It was all I wanted to write about,” Bird told me, “this idea of hoping for a change, waiting, then exploding.”

Although that energy has now been suppressed, Bird still finds a lot to love about being a musician in Hackney.  “Hackney is a major creative hub for the city of London,” she explained.  “It has more opportunity for the young entrepreneur than anywhere else in London.”

For more go to Wallis Bird on facebook.