Every now and then an album comes along that is actually difficult to review. Not because it brandishes obscurity or because it has little artistic value but because the album seems less an “album” than a collection of personal thoughts set to music. So it was with “Freedom of Birds” by Angel Unthinkable.
These 12 songs vary from the untidy to the pretentious but are always saved from invisibility by the sincerity of Angel Unthinkable's delivery. The fragility of her voice in “Can’t Wait For It to Start” is nothing less than affecting and, likewise, she delivers sincerity and poetry in tandem to bring life to “Snow White”. Even liberating Beethoven to provide the melody for “Flower Girl” is made forgivable by her lost in the moment performance.
You can sense that there is a story to be told behind the songs that are to be found on “Freedom of Birds”. That, perhaps, will make this album too much of a struggle for lovers of the three minute pop song but the honesty here is undeniable and quite sufficient to overcome the technical limitations in the recording. Like I said, this album seems more a personal document than an attempt at attaining commercial success. Bear that in mind and you won’t be disappointed.
Available from Bandcamp.