Following initial whirlwind industry attention and her rising profile both on and off the stage, finally, the fruits of her hard-won labour see the light of day. Enter, American Hero with its fiery guitar-centered sound and raucous pop bangers.
Right from the start in the album’s title there’s an ironic nod as Towa Bird’s playful sense of humour kicks in, As a half-Filipino, half-English, travelling soul moving from Hong Kong via London to LA she’s most definitely not the American Hero emblazoned on the album cover but she does espouse a creative love for similarly multi-cultural musical legends like Jimi Hendrix and Prince. She's a rocker at heart but possesses a knack for delivering acerbic one-liners and unabashed melodies, amongst a mountain of wit and self-depreciation.
There is a selection of lovesick anthems notably the archly carefree “Boomerang” and the heady lesbian sex appeal of “Drain Me” – “Tip of my tongue / Sweet and sour / Back of my car / In the shower”. These are interspersed with the catchy swirl of “Wild Heart” and the anti-capitalist fuck you of “B.I.L.L.S.” and all deliver their fair share of fine riffs and even guitar tapping thrown in, just in case you doubted Bird’s musical abilities.
But it isn’t all rushing headlong and hedonistic into oblivion there’s also space for the more anxiety-riddled "This Isn’t Me", dealing with the difficult emotions of sexuality, identity, and life’s expectations, there is naturally a maelstrom of emotions co-existing. She’s grown up with songs mostly centered around the male gaze and these are flipped to reflect her own lived experience. It represents the world she actually lives in and one that resonates with her growing army of fans.
Bird’s songs are undoubtedly composed to play live and
connect with an audience. The lyrics are meant to be shouted out loud,
sung back to her, and even on an intimate level can be belted out in a
bedroom while singing into a hairbrush, dreaming of superstardom and
reaching that heroic state. Childhood fantasy becoming manifest. The
collaborators that Bird’s worked with here have a long proven record of
hit-making so that’s no real surprise.
Thom Powers and
Alisa Xayalinth (The Naked and Famous) are key co-writers, with Alisa
serving as an additional inspiration and touchstone given that she’s a
powerful rock singer and an Asian woman operating in the same musical
sphere. The attention to detail shown when working alongside producers
is also key to getting the most out of her songs. Alexander 23 (Olivia
Rodrigo, Tate McRae) and Luke Niccoli (Carly Rae Jepsen, Gwen Stefani)
both give a strong indication of the sonic realm most of Bird’s material
inhabits.
A wildly cathartic moment like “Deep Cut” has Bird
delivering an intense breakup song containing hyper-bouncy rhythms and
fantastically vicious one-liners, “Turn you into a deep cut / You’re a
story that I’ll tell to my friends”. Ouch. As the album unfolds further,
the mood turns bittersweet with the hypnotic alt-pop of “Sorry Sorry”, a
co-write with Luke Wild, which is equal parts urgent and tender mixing
big beats with a tonne of vulnerability and heart.
From the terrifically bombastic opening of “Intro” to the chiming
finish of “A Party” the entire album twists and turns between bursts of
energetic pop-punk, frenzied expressions of lust, calmer reflective
honesty, and sharply observed moments of uncomplicated joy. American Hero sounds
very easy and fluid. There’s an embracing of life and its current
thrills that Towa Bird is both experiencing and expressing, almost in
real time. That love and exploration of being present and appreciated is
infectious so it’s not difficult to imagine this album propelling her
into a stratospheric orbit if she wants to travel there and embrace it
wholeheartedly.
