- 2023-08-21
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MUSIC
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ Birdy Releases New Album “Portraits”
British singer-songwriter Jasmine Van den Bogaerde, aka Birdy released her fifth studio album “Portraits” on August 18, 2023 via Atlantic Records.
Initially, the album was supposed to be released on July 14, but pushed back one month.
It is her first body of work in two years since the 2021 album “Young Heart”.
The album comprises 11-track, produced by Birdy, Anya Jones, King Ed, Barney Lister, Dan Priddy, Mark Crew, Gabe Simon, and Bullion.
Birdy explained track-by-track for the album via YouTUbe.
“Paradise Calling”
“I wrote 'Paradise Calling' because I wanted to write something that was really joyous and was kind of instant from the first moment and I think that energy is not something that I really experimented before. So we started with the since riff which is how the song starts. And I guess it's about chasing a dream and always being just out of reach.”- s5p3dnefZd4
“Raincatchers”
“Every raincatches Aaron about a friend of mine, one of my best friends when we were growing up and it was kind of about us going our separate ways and kind of just what happens as you grow up your lives take different paths, and but it was about remembering when we were young and carefree, but it's also about I guess the inner child and I think sometimes we lose that as we get older our kind of freelance and it's about remembering and embracing your own child.”
“Ruins I” & “Ruins II”
“'Ruins I' and 'Ruins II', the kind of opposite stories I think about a relationship. And the in 'Ruins I' it doesn't end well and then 'Ruins II' it's full of Hope and that they're gonna make it out. But theres two of them because originally I wrote I had 'Runes II', I heard the verse. And I had written the vast years before and never finished it. And then last year, I wrote this chorus part, and had the word ruins in it and but I hadn't finished the songs, I was kind of holding it back and then I went with Anya Jones and Ed Carlile, and rewrite 'Ruins I' and it didn't have a title, so the title 'Ruins' just came out and I said I've got this other song there that's called drones and then we kind of we worked on that one and we just loved both of them and decided they were both, face to face beyond the record and it was kind of nice, if they were opposite.”-
“Your Arms”
“I wrote 'Your Arms' for someone who's very close to me and they're going through grief and the song sort of I guess it's about grief but it's about particularly how painful it is to forget things about someone you've lost I think that happens over time and that can be really hard I think when you start to forget someone. And it's about the memory of being in their arms and knowing at one point you were in their arms.”
“Heartbreaker”
“'Heartbreaker' is about I guess it's about relationship and someone not turning out how you thought they were going to be and we did a really fun video for it. It's like my friend Hugo Hamlet starred, in singing right now in the background, he starred in as the monster and it's about a love affair between this thick monster creature.”
“I Wish I Was A Shooting Star”
“I wrote 'I Wish I Was A Shooting Star' in Nashville with my friend Gabe Simon and it's about feeling invisible and I wrote it about someone who's really brilliant, but who feels I guess that the world's against them and it's about them trying to brake through and they just can't and I think it's one my favorites on the record and I love production the on it as well as I was really inspired by acoustic mixed with electronic on this record and this song I was listening to David Bowie and Pixies.”
“Portraits”
“'Portraits' came about from kind of really knowing what we were going to write about that here I wrote it with my friend Gabe. And he just aksked me what I'd been up to recently and I said I've been painting portraits of people and he really loved that and he came up with this lyric portraits of painting portraits of you in my room and I love that and it kind of made me think about how you could of paint someone exactly how you want them to be even though it might not be reality and recreate the picture every time there's an imperfection. And a lot of the album is about that and about fantasy and perfectionism to the point of heartbreak.”
“Automatic”
“'Automatic' was inspired by it sounds really inspired by Kate Bush, and like The Toms at the beginning. Take that off the verse is very breeding I think that came there, but the chorus is I remember it was around the time that as it was by Harry Styles came out. And I loved how nostalgic that song feels it's really as it has feeling of 60s and 70s I've had it and so I kind of wanted to create something with that feeling that felt quite light and fun. And it's been really fun to play it live, we played it on the tour and I really enjoyed it.”
“Battlefield”
“'Battlefield' is the last song that I made and recorded the album and it was actually meant to go on there. But we can I read it again at the end and it felt like one. And I wanted it to feel very raw because I'd made this demo of it at home on my piano where it was kind of layered up with vocals and so recreated that I really love the one. But it's about the way that we always we all go through certain things in life that are out of our control and how hard that can be and sometimes there's no reason for it but we all have to go through them.”
“Tears Don't Fall”
“'Tears Don't Fall' is one of the first songs I wrote for the record and it nearly didn't make it on because I was happy with something about it and right, we ended up rewriting the best and I wanted to put it at the end of the record because the song is a goodbye and I thought that was nice. But it's like about remembering all good times. I think it's like a nice of sweet feeling everything.”
Photo by William Waterworth - source : Apple Music
