Album Review: Suzanna Choffel’s Bird by Bird

Fourth album accentuates the genre-hopping artist’s commitment to showcasing her voice

Reviewed by Abby Johnston, Fri., Oct. 4, 2024

Suzanna Choffel (photo by Kaysie Dorsey/Pixel Peach)

A lot has changed in the seven years since local multigenre singer Suzanna Choffel last put out an album. When she recorded Hello Goodbye, she was pregnant with her first daughter. The world had not yet come to a standstill in the pandemic.

Fourth album Bird by Bird, which released on Sept. 27, marks a different era for Choffel in her personal life. She has two children now, transitioning from the imminent excitement of pregnancy to the heart-expanding reality of two children. We aren’t post-COVID, but the days without a vaccine and the immediate loop of danger and lockdown that shuttered restaurants and venues, the lifeblood for many Austin musicians, has passed.

In that time, Choffel said that her songwriting has become less declarative, and who can blame her? After living through a time where little was certain – not to mention the daily existential questions of parenthood – Choffel seems ready to ask questions and reflect on Bird by Bird, the album title itself an ode to taking things as they come.

Bird by Bird album cover (Photo & design by A. Wortz)

What hasn’t changed? Choffel’s strategic genre-hopping. Bird by Bird, like Hello Goodbye, takes her alto from smoky, red-velvet lounge singer to some twangs of country to forays into reggae. Versatility has always been a feature of Choffel’s music, and her fourth album is noncommittal in almost every way but one: the singer’s ability to harness and showcase her voice as the album’s most deft instrument.

“Little by Little” starts the album off with a lushly layered dreamscape, a maximalist treatment of a song that you can still hear Choffel picking out on her acoustic guitar. The swirl of violin pulls and fingerpicking could envelop a less interesting voice than Choffel’s, but her smooth alto floats on top of it, entrancing, but not demanding. On “Little by Little” and the moodier groover “How Do I Make You Feel,” Choffel’s assuredness as a singer – simple lines as the core, but with subtle vocal trills and flourishes that elevate the song – gives a very Nineties aesthetic: think Jewel’s expressive country-tinged pop vox. Choffel tries on many different hats in Bird by Bird, but that particular aesthetic might be the best match.

Choffel seems ready to ask questions and reflect on Bird by Bird, the album title itself an ode to taking things as they come.

Jazz is an undercurrent on Bird by Bird, but the influence becomes more direct on several occasions. From the first stand-up bass notes of “Summer in the City,” you can feel Choffel slinking into the lounge. Her voice becomes breathy before mounting into a repeated refrain, saxophone interweaving with her voice to finish her thoughts, like someone letting you in on an intimate secret. Choffel’s winking tone and a cheeky piano line on “New York” give it a more mischievous take on jazz. Someone’s up to no good, but it’s unclear if Choffel is the one warning you or the instigator.

Choffel teamed up with Grammy-winning producer David Garza for Bird by Bird, which was recorded in both Los Angeles and the Sonic Ranch studio complex outside of El Paso. The album does keep its Austin bona fides: Adrian Quesada, of the Black Pumas and Grupo Fantasma, and fiddle phenoms Carrie Rodriguez and Warren Hood play on the album.

Bird by Bird assembled quite the flock of musicians and genres, resulting in an album that at its brightest moments feels joyful and effortless. Seven years hasn’t brought her closer to settling in one lane, and perhaps that is never the goal. What matters is to keep one of Austin’s more distinct modern voices singing.