The music of Becky and the Birds seems to occupy its own unique territory. There are elements in the work of Thea Gustafsson which are familiar -- breathy vocals, trip-hop beats, layered keyboards -- but taken together, what's on Only Music Makes Me Cry Now, out today via 4AD, is singularly special.
Gustafsson uses numbers like "Anymore" to charm a listener. The sweetness in the vocals is, on this one and many tracks here, offset by the unsettling rhythmic underpinning, or juxtaposed against a smooth keyboard-line. "To Trust You", a recent single, could almost be a SZA hit, though this is far more jarring and abrasive than anything that touches the mainstream these days. This selection beneifts from a weighty synth hook running under the vocals. That and a bit of guitar give this one a dark undercurrent which is just as enticing as Thea's skittering vocals. "I look at the choices I made", an odd highlight here, warps Gustafsson's vocals so that they sound as if she's singing underwater. The effect is eerie and yet the tune still rides atop a beat that's a bit jazz and a bit funk. It's a stunning track, and there are many here, of course.
Becky and the Birds don't necessarily sound too much like Bjork but there's a sensibility here that puts me in mind of the former Sugarcubes singer. Like Bjork, Thea seems to be drawing from about a dozen genres at once. And when the results are put together like this, a listener is confronted by something that feels truly a bit new, with the familiar jostling up against the strange. At the same time, like when one heard Bjork records back in the day, a reasonable reaction is, "Why don't more artists sound like this?" They don't. And that's why Becky and the Birds are here to hand us something this beautiful and oddly compelling.
Only Music Makes Me Cry Now by Becky and the Birds is out today via 4AD.
[Photo: Oscar Lindqvist]