Birds of Tokyo release Human Design; first album in four years

Birds of Tokyo are at their most transparent when detailing the realities of overcoming adversity on their newest album Human Design. The eleven track display spotlights the group’s resilience as they conquer loss and defeat with vulnerability.

Originally planning to release their album alongside their concerts in partnership with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, their plans were brought forward, aptly highlighting their active, headstrong approach to moments of hardship. 

Finding their footing in being their most open, the album is scaffolded with deeply personal stories and recounts of the turmoil of a faltering relationship. In experiencing hurt, an emotion with nuanced, complex layering amongst individuals, Birds of Tokyo funnel the heterogeneity of heartbreak into palatable, yet evocative songs.

With frontman Ian Kenny singing as he reminisces snapshots of the past, tracks “When Home Calls” and “Photo By the Lake” rummage through formative memories in a love story, yet have been tainted. 

Ian Kenny explains of the writing process on this album, “I was just writing words to stop myself going nuts. Creating this music with the guys in the band was really a form of free therapy that’s then played out later in public, so this album is really the culmination of that whole process”.

With music acting as a form of catharsis for Ian Kenny, the group show their capacity to represent being in the pits of your mind, and succumbing to the feeling of helplessness on “Good Lord” and “Designed”, however transform their narrative into one of great perseverance and persistence on “Unbreakable”.

Birds guitarist Adam Spark, who co-wrote the songs and produced them with long time collaborator and mixer Scott Horscroft reflects, “we knew we had some pretty special music pouring out of us, but we wanted to take our time to get it right… Kenny needed time to process a lot of stuff as we went along. On lots of our favourite old records, all the songs really hang together for some reason or other so we all wanted to do that here.”

Churning away with eleven anthemic tracks, Birds of Tokyo navigate the depths of love’s intricacies, making it easier for listeners to manage and rebuild from the hysteria and turbulence of their own lives. Bookended by the most robust vocal performances on “The Greatest Mistakes” and “Never Going Back”, Birds of Tokyo reach the heart of the human design. Showing how our highs and lows coalesce, the group’s final sentiment can be seen as this; when our feelings feel the most outlandish, that’s when they are the most universal.