Take a step back – really listen with your eyes closed. The words are heightened; the breaking neck of the guitar twinges in some sort of secret language. It’s art. It’s breathtaking at the same time as it is pandering to your emotions.
While listening to the 11 tracks on San Francisco’s singer-songwriter, Deborah Crooks’ ‘Little Bird’, one’s imagination is given a free ticket to run wild. The prose thrives in each of the tracks. Yet, her vocals are disappointingly inconsistent.
The standout tracks where Crooks’ presentation and mesmerizing lyrics are “Everclear,” “Turn the Key,” the title track, “Little League” and “Bittersweet Valentine.” In all of these, Crooks excels at taking extraordinary lyrics and breaking them down into a nicely packaged chapter.
I think, too, on these aforementioned songs, she captures a more pleasing vocal mood. I’m not sure what happened (compared to “Like An Earthquake”), but the standout tracks have this unique flavor where it alls seems to fall into place. The backing orchestrations especially transformed me to an uplifting state.
“Everclear” turned out to be the favorite track for me – it’s as if she had more personality in her vocals; the words were in harmony with her confident delivery.
In “Like An Earthquake” while I enjoyed the lyrics and the arrangement, I felt like her vocals were too distracting. That seemed to be the case in “Looking Down the Road.”
Overall, I give this a B+ rating. I enjoyed her point of view, her writing style the most. Deborah Crooks’ ‘Little Bird’ channels not only her immediate world she lives in, but envelopes her listeners into caring more about our entire environment. Her lyrics may seem simple, but she covers an immense landscape in just one short stanza.
