Vera Ellen Shares New Album 'It's Your Birthday'

It's everybody's birthday and we've all been given the very special gift of a whole new album from LA-based Pōneke songwriter Vera Ellen. Every single leading up to today's It's Your Birthday drop has been an indie-pop delight, confirming again and again that the Girl Friday vocalist had a winner up her sleeve. Out via Flying Nun Records and available on tasty looking candy-orange vinyl, the album begins with an eerie instrumental track and an unknown woman's shaky voice, maybe as a warning that It's Your Birthday isn't all ribbons and buttercream, having half been written when Ellen was "broke living behind a sheet in a lounge in Hollywood" and "so homesick I wanted to puke".

But it was also written in periods of "so much elation I thought it couldn't be possible to be any higher", a feeling well expressed when the album hits moments of full-blown sing-along rock, like in 'I Want 2 B Boy' and 'It's Good, It's Simple', both of which I can picture the whole pub swaying to, belting out the lovely Samuel Austin, Ben Lemi and Albert River backing vocals. From the highs of 'Crack The Whip' to the lows of 'Stuck w Me', which first featured on her 2020 EP Songs No​-​One Should Hear, It's Your Birthday is a wonderful pop-rock rollercoaster, worth repeating 'til you're dizzy...

Vera Ellen's solo album ‘It’s Your Birthday’ is out today via Flying Nun Records.