Here’s a question for you. Does conventionality always hide something as Navi’s album “Songbird” seems, on the surface, to be a collection of the kind of conventional electro pop fuelled with the near bombastic drama that you would expect from the better female artists of the world.
Perhaps it her Romanian ancestry that makes the difference – although all the songs are in English – as things are not quite as they at first seem. So, while “Picture Perfect”, possibly the most musically playful song on the album, does seem very American, it is not really representative of the targeted missiles that make up most of this album’s armoury and only hints that the true musical inspiration is an modern day update of the French chanson.
“Eyes Wide Shut”, for example, appears to be a theatrical reflection on fragility but there is a weighty message for the modern world in there. “The Burning Process” runs with greater authority and even more obvious emotion yet it parallels “Eyes Wide Shut” in purpose.
The dancefloor- so often where all matters of the heart start anyway - is not forgotten either with an appreciation of irony inherent in the frustrating after dark search for relationships neatly, and many might say humorously, described in the manic “Backdoor”. “My Diary”, likewise, skews expectations with the Navi’s lyrics again aiming the arrow directly at the difference between expectation and reality.
Drama is Navi’s game with this album and, as my dear departed grandmother would say, it’s always better to be over the top than under the radar.
The album is available from Bandcamp.