So after a 3 year wait, Birdy has released her 3rd album! I must say, since a friend showed me her cover of Bon Iver's Skinny Love, I have been a massive fan. Her first album consisted of almost all covers, however the song that stood out for me was Without A Word, which Birdy wrote herself. I was excited to hear more of her own songs in her second album Fire Within. She did not disappoint! I found Fire Within was quite an emotional album, which Birdy herself carries off so well.
Now when the single was released from Birdy's 3rd album, Beautiful Lies, I was hooked. The first single was Keeping Your Head Up, which was a lot more upbeat than her usual music. I loved it! It was a great track that had so much potential, it also makes an incredible remix. Much like Wild Horses, one of my favourites on the album and the second single, which has already been turned into a remix, you can listen to both in the playlist at the bottom.
The album opens with Growing Pains which channels a mixture of Kate Bush and Bjork. It has an element of typical Chinese rhythms and melodies, which create a great hook. Birdy has an incredible range and has lots of angelic harmonies in many of her songs, Shadow and Save Yourself are where you can find the good examples of this.
Birdy plays the piano, so many of her tracks focus on just her and the piano. These are usually the more emotional numbers like Unbroken, Deep End, Silhouette, and Lost it All, which made me cry the first time I heard it. I also think Lost it All sounds similar to Without a Word and I can relate to it a lot, which is maybe why it's another one of my favourites on the album.
Beautiful Lies is unlike her previous albums, this time Birdy seems to have focused more on the beat and sound that she wants to create. This has created some really some great tracks on the album, like Lifted, Take My Heart and Hear You Calling. In Hear You Calling again we can hear features of chinese melodies.
The last track on the album is the album title track Beautiful Lies, again Birdy uses piano and simple harmonies to create a soft track to finish the album on, bringing the sound back to where she started almost.
Release almost a month ago now, Beautiful Lies has been added to my own personal playlist of my favourite albums and been given lots of positive praise which it certainly deserves. Now go have a listen!
The Grammy Awards were a week ago so
here are a few of the key winners and a little overview of the night.
Album of the Year
Winner: 1989 - Taylor Swift
Sound & Color - Alabama
Shakes
To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick
Lamar
Traveller - Chris Stapleton
Beauty Behind The Madness - The
Weeknd
Best New Artist
Winner: Meghan Trainor
Courtney Barnett
James Bay
Sam Hunt
Tori Kelly
Best Rock Album
Winner: Drones - Muse
Chaos And The Calm - James Bay
Kintsugi - Death Cab For Cutie
Mister Asylum - Highly Suspect
.5: The Gray Chapter - Slipknot
Best Rock Performance
Winner: Don't Wanna Fight - Alabama Shakes
What Kind Of Man - Florence
& The Machine
Something From Nothing - Foo
Fighters
Ex's & Oh's - Elle King
Moaning Lisa Smile - Wolf Alice
Record of the Year
Winner: Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno
Mars
Really Love - D'Angelo and the
Vanguard
Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran
Blank Space - Taylor Swift
Can't Feel My Face - The Weeknd
Song of the Year
Winner: Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran & Amy
Wadge
Alright - Kendrick Duckworth,
Kawan Prather, Mark Anthony Spears & Pharrell Williams (Kendrick Lamar)
Blank Space - Max Martin,
Shellback & Taylor Swift
Girl Crush - Hillary Lindsey,
Lori McKenna & Liz Rose (Little Big Town)
See You Again - Andrew Cedar,
Justin Franks, Charles Puth & Cameron Thomaz (Wiz Khalifa)
Best Pop Vocal Album
Winner: 1989 - Taylor Swift
Piece By Piece - Kelly Clarkson
How Big, How Blue, How
Beautiful - Florence & The Machine
Uptown Special - Mark Ronson
Before This World - James
Taylor
Best Pop Solo Performance
Winner: Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran
Heartbeat Song - Kelly Clarkson
Love Me Like You Do - Ellie
Goulding
Blank Space - Taylor Swift
Can't Feel My Face - The Weeknd
Best Traditional Pop Vocal
Album
Winner: The Silver Lining: The Songs Of Jerome
Kern - Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap
Shadows In The Night - Bob
Dylan
Stages - Josh Groban
No One Ever Tells You - Seth
MacFarlane
My Dream Duets - Barry Manilow
Best Music Video
Winner: Bad Blood - Taylor Swift Featuring
Kendrick Lamar
LSD - ASAP Rocky
I Feel Love (Every Million
Miles) - The Dead Weather
Alright - Kendrick Lamar
Freedom - Pharrell Williams
Best Dance Recording
Winner: Where Are U Now - Skrillex and Diplo with
Justin Bieber
We're All We Need - Above &
Beyond Featuring Zoe Johnston
Go - The Chemical Brothers
Featuring Q-Tip
Never Catch Me - Flying Lotus
featuring Kendrick Lamar
Runaway (U & I) - Galantis
Best R&B Performance
Winner: Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey) - The
Weeknd
If I Don't Have You - Tamar
Braxton
Rise Up - Andra Day
Breathing Underwater - Hiatus
Kaiyote
Planes - Jeremih Featuring J.
Cole
Best R&B Album
Winner: Black Messiah - D'Angelo And The Vanguard
Coming Home - Leon Bridges
Cheers To The Fall - Andra Day
Reality Show - Jazmine Sullivan
Forever Charlie - Charlie
Wilson
Best Urban Contemporary Album
Winner: Beauty Behind The Madness - The Weeknd
Ego Death - The Internet
You Should Be Here - Kehlani
Blood - Lianne La Havas
Wildheart - Miguel
Best Country Album
Winner: Traveller - Chris Stapleton
Montevallo - Sam Hunt
Pain Killer - Little Big Town
The Blade - Ashley Monroe
Pageant Material - Kacey
Musgraves
Best Country Song
Winner: Girl Crush - Hillary Lindsey, Lori
McKenna & Liz Rose (Little Big Town)
Chances Are - Hayes Carll (Lee
Ann Womack)
Diamond Rings And Old Barstools
- Barry Dean, Luke Laird & Jonathan Singleton (Tim McGraw)
Hold My Hand - Brandy Clark
& Mark Stephen Jones
Traveller - Chris Stapleton
Best Metal Performance
Winner: Cirice - Ghost
Identity - August Burns Red
512 - Lamb Of God
Thank You - Sevendust
Custer - Slipknot
Best Rap Album
Winner: To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
2014 Forest Hills Drive - J.
Cole
Compton - Dr. Dre
If You're Reading This Its Too
Late - Drake
The Pinkprint - Nicki Minaj
Best Music Film
Winner: Amy - Amy Winehouse
Mr. Dynamite: The Rise Of James
Brown - James Brown
Sonic Highways - Foo Fighters
What Happened, Miss Simone? -
Nina Simone
The Wall - Roger Waters
Best Song written for Visual
Media
Winner: Glory - Lonnie Lynn, Che Smith & John
Stephens (Common and John Legend)
Earned It (Fifty Shades Of
Grey) - Ahmad Balshe, Stephan Moccio, Jason Quenneville & Abel Tesfaye (The
Weeknd)
Love Me Like You Do - Savan
Kotecha, Max Martin, Tove Nilsson, Ali Payami & Ilya Salmanzadeh (Ellie
Goulding)
See You Again - Andrew Cedar,
Justin Franks, Charles Puth & Cameron Thomaz (Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie
Puth)
Til It Happens To You - Lady Gaga & Diane
Warren
Ed
Sheeran won his first ever Grammys at the ceremony - song of the year and
best pop solo performance for his hit, Thinking Out Loud.
Lady Gaga performed a tribute
to David Bowie, singing a medley of his songs.
Adele performed the track All I Ask, co-written with Bruno Mars, although she had some audio problems after a microphone fell on the piano accompanying her.
John
Legend, Demi Lovato, Meghan Trainor and Tyrese Gibson performed with Lionel
Richie to honour the former Commodores singer.
Twelve-year-old
Joey Alexander, a jazz pianist was this year's youngest Grammy nominee
and received a standing ovation from the crowd.
The
Weeknd collected two prizes - best urban contemporary album and best R&B performance.
Hollywood Vampires - a supergroup made up of members including Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper and Joe Perry - performed on TV for the first time and sang Ace of Spades in tribute to Motorhead's Lemmy.
I was introduced to Tallest Man on Earth (Kristian Matsson) last year by a friend and ever since that moment, I knew I had to see him live. Matsson has a reputation for being a lively host on his tours which made me even more excited.
Beer in hand, a group of us edged our way as close to the front as possible as Matsson dressed in white skinnys and a white t-shirt took to the stage playing a punchy, foot stomper. I immediately see why he has a reputation for putting on entertaining evenings as he prances round the stage really feeling his songs. The raspy, emotional tones coupled with fast, jangly country/folk guitar strumming means he is very similar to Mumford and Sons and thereby so are the audiences.
Tallest Man on Earth has a real knack for getting his crowds going and ensuring them a good time, but what I admired most was the way in which he could go from his party-pieces like “1904”, “Wind and Walls” and “The Gardener” to softer, sentimental songs. When he played “Fields of Our Home” from his new album, Dark Bird Is Home, all his fans were in silence marvelling at him.
I also think it is important to mention that I got the tickets from an app in the app store called Dice. This app has got me into so many cool new artists and has information on a real refreshing group of artists’ latest gigs around London and Manchester, so I would definitely recommend that.
