Birdie Busch - The Ways We Try (2005)

Tracklist

01. The Cup
02. South Philly
03. Gigi
04. Secret Hour
05. Drunk By Noon
06. Old Fashioned Way
07. The Ways We Try
08. Lightest Whitest
09. Zeros
10. Keys to the Car
11. Room in the City

Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter Birdie Busch has one of those voices that draws you in on the first phrase and breathes you out at the end of the record. It's not devastatingly beautiful, brimming with venom, or capable of coaxing small birds from their nests, but it's as familiar as storm clouds in July and as easy to ingest as a small-town milkshake. Busch and her slightly funky, sometimes quirky, and always-relaxed backing band blow through 11 slices of East Coast humor, pathos, and earnest observation that treat the word pretense as if it never existed. From the gentle swing of Cup to the bluesy Randy Newman-esque closer Room Above the City, The Ways We Try is so subtle in its execution that it may get lost among the bevy of louder, lamer, and more opulent acts of 2006, but if the business were fair, and the cream really did rise to the top, there would be one less employee doing the serving.

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