A buncha years back I discovered Birdie's first album, 1999's Some Dusty. It was a great moment to find a group so obviously influenced by my favorites like Burt Bacharach, Swing Out Sister, Free Design and Stereolab. Their sound proudly echoed the others in its dreamy, sixties styled soft pop. From the first track "Laugh", I was in love. It skips along at a jaunty pace, with sultry yet innocent vocals floating across it's top. The rest of the album followed suit with its cooing backing vocals, soft pop sensibilities, and sugary melodies. At the time I was unable to track down their second album, 2001's Triple Echo. At last I've got it and have been listening nearly non-stop for almost a week. Suffice to say, this release even better than the original. In some ways the band follows more closely along in the footsteps of Stereolab. But they do so without the sort of techno-edge that haunts much of Stereolabs work. Birdie's approach is similar, but its not replicating the sound, rather they take it in a more retro feeling direction, staying more true to their sixties pop influences. In that sense Triple Echo is more akin to Swing Out Sister than Stereolab. And, they produced a very mod video that fits them very well.
