Bird - Insides
by Emma Haigh
published: 18 / 10 / 2004

Label:
Ice Cream
Format: CD
intro
Charming debut album from singer-songwriter and cellist Janie Price, AKA Bird, which shows itself to be "a simply orchestrated voyage inside a subconscious"
Inside the diminutive frame of Janie Price, Bird has its voice; and in T'he Insides' a rather charming debut. While some of the tracks do yield a bit of perplexity (why the slide guitar in ‘Rewind’? Why the howling refrain in ‘Behind Closed Eyes’?), 'The Insides' is a fluidly arranged graceful debut, a deeply sincere documentary of the small things. Fluidly arranged and quite precisely produced, The Insides sees Bird in collaboration with Icelandic musician Eberg, and for the most part is beautifully done. Janie Price’s stunningly resonant vocals are found highlighted by Eberg’s deftness for textural arrangements using contributions from Mikey Rowe (Hammond organ, especially in ‘Shoes Should All Cost the Same’), Matt Cheadle and Michael Jarvis (softly pulsing acoustic guitar) and Gunnar Benn (haunting oboe in ‘Falling Like Stars’). Where ‘Rewind’ and ‘Runaway’ betray Bird’s true gifts, it is in tracks like ‘We Care,’ Falling Like Stars,’ ‘Shoes Should All Cost the Same’ and ‘Machine Ballerina’ that instrumentals and shuddering lyrics spin together dreamlike, and Janie Price’s vocal depth soar crystalline. In the hypnagogic and sinistral ‘We Care’ Janie’s soothing voice gradually dissolves into fragments of a lost thought as the song splinters into stray melodica and traces of a musical toy box left open. Soft acoustic guitar accompanies wistful vocals to join looping strains of oboe and trebling piano. The gasping vocals in ‘Shoes’ echo hauntingly again against Price’s mournful cello with a slow undercurrent of aching organ. These are the songs that quietly wrap this album around you, pours it warmly through you, tremblingly touches your neck and kisses you softly. At times imbued with Fraggle Rock surrealism (‘We Care’), at times pervaded within symphonic beauty and a lovers’ caress (‘Landslide;’ ‘Shoes Should Cost the Same’), at times nothing more than a flickering daydream (‘Falling Like Stars’), at times a little – admittedly – cheesy (slide guitar – I just can’t it. It makes me giggle) and a little predictable (the sadly commercial, if catchy, ‘Slowly, Slowly’ and the similarly limiting ‘Runaway’), yet The Insides is as the title suggests. A simply orchestrated voyage inside a subconscious.
Track Listing:-
1 Behind Closed Eyes2 We Care
3 Landslide
4 Rewind
5 Slowly Slowly
6 Runaway
7 Falling Like Stars
8 Love Songs On The Radio
9 Shoes Should All Cost The Same
10 Machine Ballerina
Band Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/IOLONEhttp://sailtothe-moon.tumblr.com/
interviews |
Interview (2012) |
![]() |
Atmospheric folk band Bird have won a considerable following in their hometown of Liverpool and the support of BBC 6Music. Richard Lewis talks to lead singer and songwriter Adele Emmas |
live reviews |
Kazimier, Liverpool, 23/5/2014 |
![]() |
Harry Sherriff watches promising post-rockers Bird play their launch show to promote their four years-in-the-making debut album at the Kazimier in Liverpool |
reviews |
My Fear and Me (2014) |
![]() |
Atmospheric and haunting debut album from ethereal Liverpool-based post-punk outfit, Bird |
most viewed articles
current edition
Spear Of Destiny - InterviewRobert Forster - Interview
Fiona Hutchings - Interview
When Rivers Meet - Waterfront, Norwich, 29/5/2025
Carl Ewens - David Bowie 1964 to 1982 On Track: Every Album, Every Song
Brian Wilson - Ten Songs That Made Me Love...
Pistol Daisys - Waterfront, Norwich, 29/5/2025
Credits - ARC, Liverpool, 17/5.2025
Gary Numan - Berserker
Nils Petter Molvaer - El Molino, Barcelona, 24/4/2025
most viewed reviews
current edition
Peter Doolan - I Am a Tree Rooted to the Spot and a Snake Moves Around Me,in a CircleGarbage - Let All That We Imagine Be The Light
Little Simz - Lotus
Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels
John McKay - Sixes and #Sevens
Only Child - Holy Ghosts
Vultures - Liz Kershaw Session 16.06.88
Eddie Chacon - Lay Low
Billy Nomates - Metalhorse
HAIM - I Quit
related articles |
Aug Stone and The Love Conspiracy: Interview (2016 |
![]() |
American musician Aug Stone speaks to John Clarkson about his new 60's-inspired soul band Aug Stone and The Love Conspiracy and their double A-sided debut single |
Eric Clapton: Interview (2014) |
Jeff Beck: Live Review (2014) |
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart