natbird - natbird

Natbird 

Natbird
self-released; 2013

3.7 out of 5

By Eva Cantillo

Young solo artist Nat Wesley aka Natbird recently released his second album titled Natbird. The artist is only in his mere teen years, but at the young age of seventeen he has managed to open his own indie label called Morning Hour and has released two albums. This second album of his can be considered lounge or deep lounge music; it is very downtempo and ambient-like. There are no hard-running beats or obscure bass lines, everything seems very mellow yet appealing in a subtle way.

Through only analyzing the song name, the song titled “The Ride Home” makes me really reminisce on a pleasant and quite comfortable ride home, in the hands of a safe and mellow driver, with a great experience full of positive memories just lingering gingerly in the past, still alive in my head and heart. The song is very slowed-down yet remains ever vibrant and there is so much to catch hold of in the layered beats of the song. The next song has an appeal of mystique and illustrates a journey of good discovery or epiphanies; “Implied” is jingly and vibey and just makes you want to bob your head and dive into the song.

The next two songs are accentuated by vocals, which are just as wavy and pleasing as the background beats. “Every Second” begins with beats that seem to revolve around itself; slowly and hopelessly pulling you into the whirlpool as the song moves on. There is a trippy vocal segment that repeats throughout the song, yet keeps changing form and sound. It seems to say “Lord have mercy.” “Catacomb” is super saturated with a smooth voice that just floats over the slowing gushing beats in the background. There is a nice beat that anchors the song and manages to propel the song further into time and space as the vocalist sings on.

It’s interesting how seemingly vocal-less songs can have so much meaning in the real world, simply by creating a familiar sense of feeling through audio structures. Natbird seems to achieve this on almost every track in this album as well as on the tracks with vocals. It also seems as though this artist is combing and conditioning his sound, as there are quite a number of styles on this album, yet they remain cohesive. He could be compared to the likes of upcoming artists like Ta-Ku, XXYXX or even Ryan Hemsworth.

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