Bird Streets - The Escape Artist

 

John Brodeur has played a big part of my online Reviewing time. People forget about his ace solo career before adopting the Bird Streets moniker. Anything Should Happen covered three of those four solo albums, it wasn't around for the first.

2018 brought the Bird Streets self titled album, made with Jason Falkner. It was only kept off the top slot in our Best 100 Albums of 2018 by Ex Norwegian. It remains one of the best albums of the past decade that fully realised what a great Singer Songwriter he is.

Lagoon followed in 2022 and again was high up in our Best Albums of that year. We even covered it twice, reviewing the Deluxe Edition the following year. Now Bird Streets are back with the third album and Falkner is back, indeed the album is largely played by the pair.

The Escape Artist is as great as you might expect. There is obviously a lot going on in Brodeur's head because lyrically the album is really dark. It is built on self doubt, claustrophobia and almost brokenness. So how does the man put these lyrics to such engaging, largely upbeat instrumentals.

The man can do quiet and loud engagingly. There is a great deal of variety on display and it is the incredible arrangements that allow this. In the 90s, we raved about the amount of quality singer songwriters around. There are much fewer now, so thank goodness for Bird Streets.

Trailed by three great singles. Run For Our Lives is wonderful 70s Pop Rock, It's A Start is beautifully arranged gentleness, part Folk, part late 60s Trip Out. Everyonewelovewillgoaway is built around a gobsmacking Bassline with Psych Pop Guitar, yet remains more UK Beat.

Elsewhere. Behead is a really interesting opener for someone essentially so electric. mainly Acoustic and accompanied with an Electric strum. Incredibly moving, almost Americana in feel, particularly the string arrangement. Mistaker is very different, all riff, a little Power Pop.

Wasted Years sounds more Brodeur of the earlier albums. A song story with a hypnotic riff, splendidly word heavy. Both Pride Is A Gun and Don't Be A Stranger both show the aforementioned quiet, melancholic and heartfelt.

Suite Amnesia is the big closer, epic in scope and part way through, it just rips in to something close to Garage Rock, it just underlines the strength of the artist. The Escape Artist shows a musician and the top of his game, few could write and perform an album of such scope. Just one question left! When are we gonna get that Jason Falkner solo album?

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download. You can find out more about Bird Streets here. You can listen to and buy John Brodeur's solo albums here.

.........................