Becky and the Birds are an avian wonder. On their 7 track EP Trasslig, Swedish singer and producer Thea Gustafsson’s vocals are a sweet trill, and the music is almost always highly unusual.
Gustafsson trained at Musikmakarna, a music school in Stockholm, Sweden and spent an “eye-opening” year as an intern for Avicii. She clearly learnt from the experience; this enjoyable, multi-layered EP is certainly competent. “She’s Already Crazy” is made up of a melodious whisper, but with fragments of discordant modernism. “Wondering” has a catchy but sophisticated groove, and “Paris” is an immersive wonderland of delicacy, despite its’ lyric of “losing senses while looking for some fun”.
Trasslig embraces the technical and experimental; the title track (which is Swedish for “tangled”, “messy”, “intricate”) uses Swedish spoken word with some élan, “Pass Me By” (and its outro) is complex, upbeat pop, and “Do U Miss Me” has a wonky R&B vocal.
To use a Swedish phrase, smaken är som baken, delad – “taste is like your bum, divided”. Not lost in translation, Trasslig is an interesting and entertaining EP.
Label: 4AD
Release Date: 24 JUL 2020
Poetic Justice 