ALBUM REVIEW: Nightbirde - It's OK (2023)

 

Nightbirde - It’s OK (2023)

Genre(s): Pop, Electropop

I found out about Jane Marczweski, formally known as Nightbirde, back in 2023. My dad was binging America’s Got Talent auditions and came across Nightbirde’s golden buzzer audition, which he showed to me. During Nightbirde’s audition, she performed “It’s OK”, a song she wrote about her getting diagnosed with cancer and having to reassure herself that everything is ok, made all the more tragic as before she could even perform in the finals, she had to withdraw from the competition due to her cancer worsening. She passed away in 2022. It instantly hit me like a ton of bricks as it resonated with how I was feeling in my current circumstances. I immediately pegged the song as one of my personal 11/10s and praised it to heaven and back in my 2023 best list as an ineligible honorable mention. I randomly checked out Nightbirde’s other material recently and was mostly positive on it and finding out she had a posthumous album admittedly had me feeling a bit nervous, as I was hoping that this album wouldn’t feel like a blatant cash grab. So...It’s OK...is it ok?

Okay, I’ll be honest; this is a great album and I’m happy to say that this didn’t feel like a blatant cash grab. It felt like something Nightbirde would probably have wanted to release. However, despite this album being great, I can’t lie, I was hoping I would like this album way more. Let me get some criticisms out of the way first. There are just way too many interludes here. They all run for literally less than a minute (and in some cases less than half a minute) and they don’t serve much of a purpose other than Nightbirde saying something inspirational to flow into the next track smoothly. And in that case, you could’ve just tacked those interludes onto the end of the previous song. It would flow just as well. This album is literally half interlude!!

But aside from that, I really love the poppier and more upbeat tracks, the drum machines give them incredibly solid grooves. Even on “It’s OK”, where I find the live version better and more effective at conveying the emotion, I can’t deny that the official pop version is very effective at conveying the same emotions. However, the other live song on this album, “Girl In A Bubble (Live)”, while still good, doesn’t work very well in conveying the emotions that the pop version did, the piano on that song sounds way more generic than it should and I just don’t feel any emotions from it other than “talent show song”. I still like the live version enough for its lyrics, but I could always listen to the pop version, where the lyrics work even better. The upbeat production has a certain sad tone that emphasizes the feeling of trying to mask the sadness of isolation while still feeling trapped on that song.

The only song that isn’t about Nightbirde’s emotional journey in her fight is “New Years Eve”, which is just a straightforward song celebrating the new year and it sounds straight out of Disney Channel in a great way. With that incredibly solid groove and the melody from the guitars shining so brightly, it’s an incredible song, which is why it pains me to say that despite it being one of the best songs on this album, it’s also associated with the worst song on the album, the Yacht Money remix, which just doesn’t work at all. The groove is swapped out for a very light touch of percussion and it doesn’t give it any foundation. It doesn’t work at all, it’s really formless.

So in summation, It’s OK is a great album, but I really wanted to like it more. Trim the number of interludes and axe that pointless remix and the “Girl In A Bubble” live rendition that should really work better than it does, and you probably got an incredible or even fantastic album in here. As it is, my final verdict...low 8/10. This is a great album, but I’m not sure if I can fully recommend it. This should be waaaaaaaaaaay better. RIP Nightbirde. You were still an inspiration to me, but I just wish your most likely only album delivered more. As for the best and worst tracks, for the best, I’m giving a tie between both versions of “It’s OK” (no surprises there) with honorable mention going to “New Years Eve”. That said, for the worst, I would give it to any of the interludes but all of them are in an 11-way tie for dishonorable mention. Mainly because the worst is going to that mediocre as hell Yacht Money remix of “New Years Eve”, that remix really just doesn’t work even remotely well.

Thank you all for reading!! My next article should be my best list redux for 2021. Stay tuned for that, but until then, you’ve been reading Fire’s Flaming Hot Takes, and until next time, keep it Fire!!