The Brilliance!

I’ve been missing out for a while on Andrew Bird, only recently discovering his beautiful new album Armchair Apocrypha…but better late than never. Probably the most fascinating thing about Bird’s music is the story behind the musician himself and the instruments he plays. Violin, glockenspiel, and guitar combined with a very unique style of whistling and a great voice that “...has been compared to such eminent company as Jeff Buckley, Thom Yorke, and Rufus Wainwright, but has a quality all its own.” (Source). And his lyrics? Intense doesn’t really do his lyrics justice… I love the opening song on the new album, “Fiery Crash”... Describing how basically you don’t get on a plane anymore without thinking of 9/11… just really interesting subject matter and words that he chooses. The Amazon review’s first line says “Strip away the music of an Andrew Bird song, and you’re left with brilliant prose (“across the great chasms and schisms and the sudden aneurysms”), vignettes about mentally fending off plane crashes, infiltrating characters like the kings of Macedonia and Lou Dobbs, and titles such as “Yawny at the Apocalyspe.” I’ve got to check out some of his older albums now too…from what I’ve read they’re equally great. Perfect cover too… What if his last name was Lobster instead? Andrew Lobster.