Track Listing

1. Drive
2. Sway
3. Hey
4. Bursting Through
5. Swim
6. Roll Into One
7. Suddenly Strange
8. Sorry
9. Heal
10. Delight
11. Without You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15351 in Music
• Released on: 1998-08-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of most interesting female singer/songwriters to emerge in 1998 was Bic Runga, the half-Chinese, half-Maori New Zealander who secured a deal with Sony at the age of 19. Elfin, big-voiced and bambi-eyed, her debut album went triple-platinum in her home country within a year of release. Her sound is otherworldly, edgy and unique--from the acoustic minimalism of the title track, to the passionate feedback of "Hey", to the icy, insistent "Swim", a melancholy Björkish ballad with a kick. Though her lyrics occasionally drift into cliché (of the "I fall into an ocean of you" variety), there are some wonderful moments, as in the self-deprecating simplicity of "Without You", with its slowly delivered line, "To occupy my time's my / Only wish... / I've rearranged the magnets / On my fridge." --Lucy O'Brien

Customer Reviews

addictive
I bought this album without ever having heard any of her music - just read a review in the Times - superb! The lyrics are powerful and the music refreshing - definately addictive - a real find!

Simple, catchy songs and a truly amazing voice.... beautiful
Why has this talented young lady not received the recognition that she deserves? Thankfully, the film "American Pie" helped to give her some - as soon as you hear "Sway", you'll recognise it if you've seen the film. But, Bic deserves to have the recognition for her other tracks also.
She has an amazing voice, and while this is easy to tell from listening to "Sway", perhaps the best song on the album for showcasing her voice is the opening track, "Drive". This song is just Bic singing along to a guitar - it is simple yet beautiful. I won't comment on "Sway", so many other people have done so already - it goes without saying what a great song it is.
Another of my personal favourites is "Hey". Again, her voice is the most noticeable thing. But, unlike the previous two songs, this song reaches a great crescendo adding power to the song as a whole.
Give this CD a try, I doubt you'll be disappointed. It may not be the same as the pop music in the charts, but it is nothing less than pure talent - something not always found in chart music these days. Bic Runga is not just a pretty face, she is a proper artist, with bags of talent.

God Bless Movie Soundtracks
Without the "American Pie" soundtrack, I would never have discovered this little gem. I somehow missed the Bic Runga explosion of two years ago and only discovered this remarkable musician through a second viewing of the "American Pie" DVD.

"Sway" was, of course, the song that caught my attention, but that drove me on to buy Bic's enhanced CD immediately. While none of the other tracks have "Sway's" hypnotic, romantic quality, each is accomplished and sparkles in its own way. What makes this freshman effort more remarkable still is the fact that the Malay songstress is credited with writing, arranging, producing and with playing many of the instruments.

This is a lyrically spare album, as most of the effort seems to have gone into the impassioned vocals, but each song was cohesive and made sense within its own context, unlike the drivel produced by many artists today who are trained musically but have no sense of poetry or style. Sure, most of the songs are about silly, inconsequential things, but John Keats wrote once about a nightingale's voice and people are still reading him.

Vocally, "Drive" reminds me of Milla Jovovich's "The Divine Comedy", but this CD is musically more spare, letting Runga's lush vocals ring true.