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Young Heart is the fourth studio album by English singer-songwriter Birdy, released on 30 April 2021 by Atlantic Records. The album was announced on 22 January 2021 with the release of the first single "Surrender".[1]

Young Heart
Studio album by Birdy
Released	30 April 2021 (2021-04-30)
Recorded	2019–2020
Studio	Mill Pond Music Studio Moxe Studio (Nashville, Tennessee) Sound Emporium Studio 53 (London) The Church (London)
Genre	Indie folk folk-pop
Length	58:21
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Ian Fitchuk Daniel Tashian James Ford
Birdy chronology
Piano Sketches (2020) Young Heart (2021)
Singles from Young Heart
"Surrender" Released: 22 January 2021 "Loneliness" Released: 12 February 2021 "Deepest Lonely" Released: 19 March 2021 "Second Hand News" Released: 16 April 2021 "Little Blue" Released: 8 July 2021

Background

While reaching the end of the tour for her 2016 album Beautiful Lies, she admits to feeling that she was "acting a little bit" and instead wanted to capture the more quiet and gentle aspects of how she normally writes and sings songs alone.[2] In the four years after release of Beautiful Lies, Birdy took a break from releasing music, eventually reintroducing herself in November 2020 with the release of the EP Piano Sketches.[3][4]

In the period between Beautiful Lies and Young Heart, Birdy credits "writer's block" and the need for "some time to live a bit" as reasons why it took four years to finish the album.[5]

Before writing for the album began, Birdy suffered from a breakup and looked to the music of Etta James and Nina Simone for emotional support.[6] To get inspiration for writing and to shake the sadness of the breakup, Birdy took a three month hiatus to India with her sister, cousin and their friend before staying in a log cabin in Topanga, California for inspiration. Staying in the cabin gave the album a "kind of Laurel Canyon, seventies-like feel" according to Birdy.[7] The result is what she calls a "heartbreak album"[5] inspired by the Joni Mitchell album Blue.[8] The first track written for Young Heart was the title track "Young Heart" that acts as the "core of the record" and is the "most emotionally charged song" for Birdy.[9] The track "Loneliness" in contrast was originally written for 2016's Beautiful Lies but was set aside at the time for not fitting into that album.[9]

Recording

In a departure from the "big production" of the previous album, Birdy said that Young Heart is "quite stripped back – anything that didn't need to be there, isn't. There's no decoration".[10] To record the album, Birdy worked with producers Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian who had previously worked on Kacey Musgraves' 2018 album Golden Hour.

The recording sessions for the album took place in Nashville.[11] The recording of the album was completed just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 and the album was intended to be released soon thereafter. It was delayed as a result of the pandemic but this allowed greater time for Birdy to reflect on the album and make small changes accordingly. While staying at her family home in New Forest during the pandemic, she set up a makeshift mixer studio in a cupboard and was finishing bits of the record at home.[7]

Promotion

On 15 April 2021, Birdy performed a livestreamed concert at Wilton's Music Hall in London accompanied by a band including eight string players, a clarinet player and a French horn player.[5] The show was shot by director Ed Coleman.[12] Kate Soloman for iNews rated the performance four out of five stars and called the livestreamed performance "a masterful livestream, full of beautiful noise".[13]

On 30 April, coinciding with the release of the album, Birdy held an album launch party on YouTube by performing a 7-song setlist decided by fans.[14]

Release

Young Heart was released on CD, cassette, vinyl and digital formats. An exclusive purple-coloured 140g vinyl LP is available from Birdy's website which is made from 100% recycled plastic and the LP inner and outer sleeves are made from 100% recycled paper. Each of these recycled pressings are unique as a result of being made from composite materials, a byproduct of wastage in pressing other vinyl records.[15]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	84/100[16]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[17]
The Irish Times	[18]
The Line of Best Fit	7/10[19]
NME	[20]
The Times	[21]

Upon its release, Young Heart received critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 84, based on 4 critical reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[16]

The Times praised the album, awarding it four stars, for its "sentiments so uncynical and wide-eyed that it is impossible not to be charmed".[21] A four-star review from NME praised the album as a "gorgeous album that perfectly captures the meandering journey that heartbreak takes you on" and praised the more stripped back style of songs for allowing Birdy's emotions to come to the fore. However, the review criticised the momentum of the 16-song tracklist with "River Song" and "Little Blue".[20] Likewise, Lauren Murphy for The Irish Times writes that at times "Young Heart is too long-winded for its own good".[18] In contrast, a 7/10 review for The Line of Best Fit called it a "coherent addition to an already charming catalogue from Birdy" that is "consistent from start to finish".[19]

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

• Jasmine Van den Bogaerde – vocals, guitar, piano, mellotron, synthesizer, organ
• Ian Fitchuk – bass guitar, drums, mellotron
• Daniel Tashian – synthesizer, background vocals, bass, mellotron
• James Ford – synthesizer, 12-string guitar, drums, harmonium, hammond organ
• Matt Combs – strings
• Tyler Summers – Bass clarinet, flute
• Austin Hoke – Cello

Production

• Jasmine Van den Bogaerde – vocal recording engineer
• Ian Fitchuk – recording engineer, production (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10-16)
• Daniel Tashian – recording engineer, production (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10-16)
• James Ford – production (tracks 3, 5, 8, 9)
• Sara Law – executive production

• Rachel Moore – assistant engineer
• Cenzo Townshend – mixing engineer
• Mark Stent – mixing engineer
• Camden Clarke – assistant mixing engineer
• Matt Wolach – assistant mixing engineer
• Robert Sellens – assistant mixing engineer

• Jonny Wright – additional production
• Josh Moore – music editor
• Stuart Hawkes – mastering engineer

Charts

Chart performance for Young Heart

Chart (2021)	Peak position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[22]	25
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[23]	19
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[24]	22
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[25]	18
French Albums (SNEP)[26]	90
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[27]	23
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[28]	13
Irish Albums (IRMA)[29]	58
Scottish Albums (OCC)[30]	9
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[31]	11
UK Albums (OCC)[32]	4

Release history

Release history for Young Heart

Region	Date	Format	Label	Ref.
Various	30 April 2021	CD LP cassette digital download streaming	Atlantic	[33][15][34][35]

Young Heart Tour

Young Heart

Tour by Birdy
Start date	March 26, 2023 (2023-03-26)
End date	April 25, 2023 (2023-04-25)
No. of shows	19

Tour dates

List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, opening act, tickets sold, amount of available tickets and gross revenue

Date (2023)	City	Country	Venue
March 26	Cologne	Germany	Carlswerk Victoria
March 27	Hamburg		Fabrik
March 28	Berlin		Tempodrom
March 30	Wiesbaden		Schlachthof
March 31	Luxembourg City	Luxembourg	Den Atelier
April 1	Stuttgart	Germany	Wagenhallen
April 3	Munich		Neue Theaterfabrik
April 4	Vienna	Austria	Vienna Gasometers
April 5	Zurich	Switzerland	Volkshaus
April 6	Lausanne		Les Docks
April 10	Brussels	Belgium	Cirque Royal
April 11	Amsterdam	Netherlands	Royal Theater Carré
April 12	Rotterdam		Rotterdamse Schouwburg
April 14	Paris	France	Le Trianon
April 17	Madrid	Spain	La Riviera
April 18	Barcelona		Razzmatazz
April 20	Milan	Italy	Fabrique
April 23	London	England	Eventim Apollo
April 25	Dublin	Ireland	Olympia Theatre

References

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