The Bird and the Bee

As revered jazz labels Verve and Blue Note try to stay relevant with contemporary music each has set up sub-labels, Verve Forecast and Metro Blue, respectively, to handle the mostly laidback but cosmopolitan-sounding sounds that drift from hip coffee shops everywhere. Verve’s mostly successful offering was the polyglot beats of the Brazilian Girls, while Blue Note now has its answer in the form of L.A.’s the Bird and the Bee, self-described as "a futuristic 1960s film set in Brazil,” which is not quite off the mark. With the same saucy lyrics as the Brazilian Girls ("Would you ever be my fucking boyfriend?,” singer Inara George wryly asks), the Bird and the Bee forgo the latter’s penchant for the dance floor, instead making mostly sunny pop music with an air of continental sophistication that’s in the same vein as current chart-topper Lily Allen (who they will open for on her British tour) and Ivy. It is Greg Kurstin’s (the other half of the duo) infective keyboard playing however, that gives the songs a unique charm and it ensures that they remain memorable when doe eyed, female-fronted songs of this type have become all too disposable. "Birds and the Bees” is an example where dreamy keyboards and lightly-tapped drums evoke the feeling of Astrud Gilberto’s Rio de Janeiro on a rainy off-season day before a more melodic chorus of instruments mix with George’s beguiling vocals.