Andrew Bird-- Armchair Apocrypha

[Josh]

I am delighted by Andrew Bird's new album. And I suspect that many folks here will love it as well, though few will share my enthusiasim.

Not that any of those statements should be too surprising. After all, I've made no secret of the fact that Bird's last album-- The Mysterious Production of Eggs-- is, for me, a landmark recording. One of the most common bits of music critic hyperbole is to say that an album gets better every time you hear it, but that album really DOES grow in stature every time I play it-- which is fairly often. I'm still spellbound by its mystery, its humor, its dogged creativity, its vibrant energy. In Josh World, it's the blueprint for a perfect pop album. And, while it was praised across the board, I think I was the only critic to rank it above that one Sufjan Stevens disc on a year-end top-ten list.

Armchair Apocrypha is a very different album. It's an Andrew Bird album through and through, but it also finds him following his muse in a distinctly different direction. Where Mysterious Production is a sprawling, whirlwind ride through songs that twist and turn and mutate and veer off into bizarre left-turns, the new album is comparatively more focused, more concise. Where Mysterious Production explored a dazzling array of sounds and styles, this one works within a smller framework, exploring variations on a single sound. It's a slightly darker album, and it's the most guitar-oriented and least violin-oriented album Bird's ever done. It's moodier and a bit more laid back.

And it's really, really great-- it's obviously going to have to work pretty hard to beat out Mysterious Production in my mind, but some early reviews are calling it the best thing Bird's ever done. Rankings aside, though, this is simply a very engrossing album filled with uniformly great songs. The first song, "Fiery Crash," is one of the most devastating post-9/11 songs I've yet heard. "Imitosis" reworks "I" (from Weather Systems) into one of the most bizarrely catchy pop songs in the Bird canon. "Armchairs" is a slow, jazzy shuffle with spellbinding poetry. "Heretics" and "Dark Matter" are both irresistible for their dark humor. And that's just a few early highlights; the whole album is wonderful.

So, if you still haven't joined the cult of Andrew Bird... well, what the heck are you waiting for? This guy is making some of the most creatively vibrant pop music of anyone out there, and his latest is simply one more reason to fall in love with him.

[Aaron]

This is the best Andrew Bird album yet.  MPoE was a very good album but this one blows it out of the water.  I sense much more emotion and musical growth on this disc.  It sucks you in and doesn't release you until the end while I couldn't stay into MPoE

[murlough23]

You know what? This album is kind of boring. There are the usual neat combinations of Bird's violin plucking/playing and whistling, and other instruments like the piano and odd noises here and there, but there's too much emphasis on more of a "regular" song structure and the guitars. Bird doesn't do rock songs that well; they end up kind of mushy and not all that energetic. And some of the slower songs on this record are downright dull despite the unique instrumentation. I think it's a step back from TMPOE, though I do really enjoy the trance-inducing plucking of "Imitosis" and the frenetic drums of "Simple X". "Yawny at the Apocalypse" is a breathtaking instrumental closer, too. Most of the rest of it, while each song has its little moments and the lyrics are wonderfully quirky as expected, just fails to really strike me as memorable - kind of like the last third of Eggs.

NP: "Spare-Ohs", Andrew Bird

[cowdude]

I've listened to this five or six times now, it has grown on me with each listen. I defiantly need to check out his older stuff...

[murlough23]

I defiantly need to check out his older stuff...

Then I defy you to do so.

[enemy anemone]

this album has grown on me slowly, one or two songs at a time. but now I find myself listening to the whole album over and over again and hearing different things each time. I love it.