Performing covers is a risky business and Birdy (real name Jasmine Van den Bogaerde) provides a perfect case study.
Her debut single offered an innocent version of Bon Iver's Skinny Love, but it couldn't stand up to the original, lacking the maturity to match Justin Vernon's dark melancholia. But with Shelter her immaturity works in her favour, her fragility and vulnerability haunting the listener. The XX's original sounds dry by comparison. Again, the production is simply voice and piano, her voice sounding ghostly and pale. It doesn't quite hit the gothic heights of Bat for Lashes or Florence and the Machine, but perhaps in time this will come.
Still, it begs the question: when will Birdy be releasing some original music of her own?
4/5
