Jade Bird – One to Watch in 2019

Happy New Year readers. This year’s blogs start with a recommendation for an artist I discovered entirely by accident but took to immediately. I had Sunday Brunch on the TV last Sunday whilst I was doing the ironing (yes, I am house trained!), playing the show out was a girl from Croydon by the name of Jade Bird, who blew me away with her performance so I had to do some digging about her.

Jade’s originally from the North East but now resides (via South Wales) in Croydon. She’s only 21 years old but has already been signed by Glassnote Records the label behind Mumford and Sons with release of her debut album in the spring.

First thing that hits you when you listen to Jade is how similar she is to Alanis Morissette, having a similar ‘alternative’ punky yet soulful sound. The attitude is there as is the delivery but Jade ain’t just a one-dimensional facsimile of Morissette, she’s so much more. Throw in a bit of folk and bordering on a bit of country music you’re starting to get the picture. Her influences sound fairly broad - much like her music, taking in the likes of Lana Del Ray and Ryan Adams through to Lady Gaga, Neil Young, CS&N and even Leonard Cohen. 

A couple of Jade’s recent tracks I was particularly impressed with are :

Love Has All Been Done Before
A song she belts out all about her frustration in a relationship that’s got complacent and ‘samey’. With lyrics like “Everything's a rerun; Before it's even begun; Tell me, what's the reason? If everything's a season; Then I'm a setting sun; We're already done” Jade doesn’t hold back in having a go at her partner explaining quite vividly what she’s looking for in their relationship. I think this track is actually more Patti Smith than Alanis - she gets some power out of that acoustic guitar too!

Uh Huh
This is just a brilliant song, with a fantastic vocal from Jade. In many ways this is a mash-up of 70’s folk, 90’s grunge and todays music sung by Janis Joplin all wrapped up in one track. 

I watched the video on YouTube and she comes across as very natural, with it all being about the performance. Unlike a lot of today’s music you can actually hear the lyrics which are both witty and meaningful.

It’s not just her own tracks that are good, check out her piano cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ from a Radio 1 session which is absolutely sublime.

Overall
Jade’s got the best female voice I’ve heard in a long time. I’ve downloaded a lot of her tracks and have now got them on repeat in the car. I’ll certainly be getting the album when it comes out in the spring. 

Rolling Stone named Jade Bird as an “Artist to Watch” last year and Vevo have named her one of their ‘2019 Artists To Watch’. After watching her videos and listening to the tracks I certainly agree and expect her success to rocket this year. Don’t take my word for it though, go look her up yourself.