Birdy, “Portraits.”

Even though she’s a songwriter, Birdy first drew attention for her majestic, understated covers. Ten years after she burst on the scene with her cover of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love” at 15, she’s releasing her fifth album. Portraits finds Jasmine van den Bogaerde moving into new dimensions as she explores her own sound, and coming in to her own as an artist.

Her last album, Young Heart, had a stripped-back, Laurel-Canyon-esque feel to it. For Portraits, thought, Birdy has gone full synth-pop, with a dazzling array of shiny artificial sounds straight out of the ’80s. “Paradise Calling” bursts out of the gate with an energetic beat and a synth line straight out of A-ha.

“Paradise calling/ All I ever wanted is/ Something to believe in,” she practically hollers on the energetic and catchy chorus. It’s a strong start to Portraits.

Birdy’s music has always had a classical bent to it. Her mother was a concert pianist, so she grew up listening to it. “Raincatchers” starts out sounding like “Eleanor Rigby” with its moody strings. This song of longing amps up the drama with the passion in her voice on the cathartic chorus: “Here in my dreams/ We’re raincatchers/ Come back to me/ Like it was before / You made me feel like / Nothing really matters.”

Many of the songs on Portraits are about a relationship that’s ended. Lost love is a heavily tread subject, but “Ruins I” shows Birdy can get experimental, too, with an industrial beat and strident synths. “Ruins, ruins, ruins/ We’ll never be the same again,” she laments, before an ethereal choir closes out the song.

Calling back to the style with which she first emerged, “Your Arms” is a minimalist piano-based song with subtle cello shimmering underneath. Birdy reflects on how we misremember relationships after they’ve ended: “I remember you my way/ It’s not perfect or fair/ I paint you with colors/ That weren’t ever there.” She goes on to sing that despite knowing she’ll never get answers to all her questions, she still holds the memory of being with her lover close.

“I was in your arms,” she repeats like a mantra.

“Heartbreaker” has a hip-hop beat and a HAIM-esque feel to it.

“You say one more dance and I always give in,” she sings. Then ruefully, almost under her breath, “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

With a vocalized “eh-oh” chant that sticks in your head, “Heartbreaker,” produced by Mark Crew (Bastille) and Dan Priddy (James Blunt), is one of the danciest, catchiest songs on the album.

On “I Wish I Was a Shooting Star,” Birdy is in “a dark haze,” where “the universe seems unfair.” “Shooting Star” features long, flawless vocal runs over stirring violin playing, but also exquisite pathos in Birdy’s voice.

“So tell me how I’m meant to feel/ I’m dying to get out of here,” she pleads on the chorus, before synths build like a warning siren.

“Call me obsessed but I’d die if you were to speak to me,” she sings on the title track. This slower, piano-based number seems to be about a celebrity crush, as she sings about “dancing for portraits of you … in my room.” She gives voice to the frustration of an unrequited infatuation, even if it’s hard to believe.

Portraits is a special album, from a truly talented artist. Birdy has clearly learned a lot about herself as an artist and sounds remarkably self-assured on this album. At a time where everything seems prefabricated and algorithm-driven, it’s refreshing to hear that Birdy isn’t playing to anyone’s beat but her own.

Follow Rachel Alm at Twitter.com/thouzenfold and Instagram.com/thousandfold.