Don't Read This or Anything Else About Zee Avi's Music

On a hot summer day like the one on which I'm writing this, you don't need more words from me. You do need the sweet, sassy words with cool and cooling music of Zee Avi. So, go ahead, click any of the links below; prepare to be charmed, maybe even to fall in love. Then come back, and find out how the voice of Zee Avi, this amazing singer-songwriter, got from her home in Kuala Lumpur (more) to your home.

The twelve songs on the album Zee Avi

Brushfire Records (website) released Zee Avi's debut album, Zee Avi in May 2009. Here are online videos (or audio, for one) for each of the twelve songs on the album. Enjoy!

1. "Bitter Heart" - video; lyrics; living well may be the best revenge, but writing a funny song about a breakup must be a close second.

2. "Poppy" - video; lyrics; Zee Avi often sings about failed relationships; this song is especially touching because Poppy is not another woman, but a drug.

3. "Honey Bee" - video; a nonconformist honeybee gets kicked out of the hive; autobiographical?

4. "Just You And Me" - video; lyrics; you may have to go back to Tiny Tim (more) for a song with a ukelele, but has there ever been a song with a reference to reading Kierkegaard (more)?

5. "Is This The End" - video; this is one of only two videos listed here not on YouTube.

6. "Monte" - video; maybe Zee Avi is too young (twenty-three) to sing, "I'm just glad I'm still around"; this song was featured on an episode of Private Practice (more).

7. "Kantoi" - video; lyrics; with lyrics for this "Manglish" (Malay-English) shown on the video, you can sing along.

8. "I Am Me Once More" - video; lyrics; like the video for "Poppy," this is one of Zee Avi's early videos, recorded on a webcam.

9. "First Of The Gang" - video; this song by Morrissey (more) is the only cover on the album; on Zee Avi's YouTube channel (here) there are several early videos of covers.

10. "Darling" - video; another early homemade video, in which she sings of cigarettes: say it ain't so!

11. "The Story" - audio only; scroll down this page to the link to the audio.

12. "Let Me In" - video; this is the other video here not on YouTube.

Zee Avi online and beyond

Zee Avi's posted a webcam video on YouTube for friends who had missed a performance of hers in her home city of Kuala Lumpur. The video received so many favorable responses that she uploaded more videos to YouTube, creating her own channel (here), under the name KokoKaina, her previous stage name. (Her birth name, by the way, is Izyan Alirahman.)

On the basis of those videos, Brushfire Records signed her, with her song "No Christmas For Me" (video) featured on the company's 2008 album This Warm December: A Brushfire Holiday. In May of this year, her Brushfire album Zee Avi was released. You can buy it as a CD or MP3 downloads wherever you buy such wares, for instance on Amazon (here).

In comments on blogs and Internet forums, Zee Avi has an impressive pedigree, with fans hearing in her voice echoes of great singers from Billie Holliday (more) to Norah Jones (more). Zee Avi's slightly rough, smoky (though, please, let the reference to cigarettes in "Darling" just be an example of artistic license) reminds me of Tina Turner's classic introduction to "Proud Mary" (video), "nice and rough."

According to her website (of course, such a savvy cyber-singer as Zee Avi has a website, here), she is currently touring in the United States. You can also keep up with her on her YouTube channel (here), her MySpace page (here), and her Twitter account (here). Things are looking up for this cute, funny singer of droll songs and picker of a mean guitar.

People have told me that it was in my articles that they first heard of Susan Boyle (here) and Esperanza Spalding (here). If in years to come, when Zee Avi is picking up her third or fourth Grammy, you recall that it was in this article that you first heard of her, then that would surely leave me with a song in my not-so-bitter heart!

A note on the videos (and audio)

I refer to Zee Avi's songs by the titles used on her album. Some videos to which I link have slightly different titles. Some of the performances that I link to are different from the performances on the albums (especially the early webcam videos, where the audio quality may be poor). Finally, as far as I know, the videos and audio are posted online legally, but it is possible that some of them may be removed at any time.