Brighton band Birdeatsbaby dip their toes in our world rather than being the sort of band we would normally look at but then again, they co-exist in many musical universes. One only has to look at a recent covers album that I didn’t know even existed until I just looked at their Bandcamp page. The list they have chosen here is everything from Korn to QOTSA, to Tool, Hole, Randy Newman, Nancy Sinatra and Leadbelly. I have been a fan for a while since hearing their album The Bullet Within in 2014 and catching them live a couple of times. They have a massive work ethic and are with various friends and families constantly releasing music and trying new things such as Patreon to get themselves out there and be heard and this seems to be paying off in the popularity stakes as they have quite a flock of followers. I was both surprised and very happy for this new album to turn up via DR Music as it was slightly unexpected. I had bought Tanta Furia in 2016 but not reviewing it probably not paid it the attention it deserved so was pleased to get to grips with The World Conspires. I was glad it turned up very early and a long time before release date too as it is a whopper with 15 tracks and a runtime of just shy of 70 minutes. After a first few listens I was able to put it down and come back to it a couple of weeks later and the way the songs here hit me then proved just how brilliant they are at creating fantastic earworms and melodies that really stick.
Centred around flame haired chanteuse and multi-instrumentalist Mishkin Fitzgerald the quartet have been through various line-up changes since I first caught them. Along with Hana Maria, Gary Mitchell and Pablo Paracchino (seemingly replaced since these recordings by Anna Mylee) one look at the instruments played between them gives you an idea just how versatile a listening experience is in front of me. Piano, accordion, violin, cello, harp, flute, saxophone are just some included along of course with the accoutrements of any modern band. Best advice is ‘Hold Your Breath’ for the first number and take a trip with the delights here, expecting the unexpected and just enjoying the wonders ahead. A gorgeous ballad and one of a few this may well be slightly away from what you are used to reading about here but the warmth, heart and soul must touch as the instrumentation picks up and we bounce into ‘Painkiller’ (and nope it’s not a cover of you know who). Sultry and swaying it’s got a slight gentle symphonic backdrop as the strings weave away and genres are transcended. One of many stories told the slightly Siouxsie-esque vocals give a Gothic sense and if you have the lyrics to hand you will find yourself transfixed on many a level. Check out the video below and see just how superb the band are in visual flair, the artistic levels spreading to all mediums and completing a perfect over-all picture of how seriously they formulate a complete vision of their craft.
It’s mainly the shiver-down-the-spine inducing melodies that are the real joy here such as the ones on ZeroFortyThree and Lady Grey, the one on which chills me to the bone and has my heart swooning. There is a huge knack of sublime song-craft here but don’t expect things to stick on just a central motif anything can happen and things can peel off into avant-garde and even lounge & vaudeville territories with flair and ambition that really works wonders. As a radio dial is twisted another thing that should not surprise is a sudden splash of classical music, this lot are scholars of everything musical, they consume it all and are happy to embellish the listener with their ideas all of which are wild and wonderful. One listen of the title track will give you an idea if this is for you, there’s even a splash of prog to keep you on your toes and the strength of the main rhythm and absolutely dolorous vocals (surprisingly both male and female) that follow are fantastically poised before the track goes into a finale similar to a Russian composer marching through the snow in midst of a revolution. Fantastic for the imagination.
At times soothing and at others quirky and just a bit mental these are songs of lives well lived and every aspect from music to lyrics are consummately considered, there’s not a duff number among the 15 songs here, making it practically impossible to choose a favourite other than the song you are currently listening to. Sure, this one is not for everyone but a bit of beauty in life and an album that’s an emotional rollercoaster is exactly what you need at times and that is just what we get here. Songs like ‘Esmerelda’ transcend worlds and yes if it had been done by someone such as Amy Winehouse it would no doubt have been a hit and one with a harp! At the completely other end of the spectrum Dido’s Lament with vocalist Feline Lang is classicism and opera and a sombre splash of Purcell proving literally anything can happen in the Birdeatsbaby world. If the whole thing sounds a little scary and outside the comfort zone for you, don’t worry you’ll be welcomed in with open arms and be singing along to the mad and zealous Kill No One (it’s the sort of number one would expect from Vulture Industries) in no time. If there’s one album you do try for the sheer hell of it, want to explore as something different, or simply coz I told you to, this year it should be The World Conspires! Hopefully the whole of it will be up on Bandcamp after release date of Oct 18th so you can do just that.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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