beautiful bird

I can't stop listening to Andrew Bird's Armchair Apocrypha. The poignant prose, the chilling lyrics, the vibrant violin. I'm totally smitten. Give this album one little listen, and you will be too!

I think I stumbled upon this musical gem in the 'listeners also bought' section of the i-tunes store. For whatever reason I decided to do a little sampling and instantly fell in love. This is Bird's twelfth album. Yes, twelfth album! How I haven't heard of him till now is completely baffling. Now that I'm familiar with his brilliance, I am sure I'll be listening to him for years to come.

The first track is titled "fiery crash". Critics have compared this tune to Wilco's "war on war". I couldn't agree more. The similarities are remarkable. There's the obvious guitar resemblance, but for me the likeness in philosophy is the true parallel. Anyone familiar with the Wilco hit knows the haunting line "you have to learn how to die... if you want to be alive". Equally haunting is Bird's "to save our lives you’ve got to envision... the fiery crash". Both chilling rants of society questioning human existence, and predestinarianism in this post 9-11 world. The beauty of both songs lies in this juxtaposition between the messages of anxiety and the poppy, upbeat cheerful rhythm. This concept is certainly not a breakthrough technique, but often it's achieved in a cheap and meaningless manner. This was not the case with "war on war", and is undoubtedly not the case with "fiery crash".

The songs that follow are an array of consistently sweeping and splendid indie pop goodness. Without skipping a philosophical beat, Bird takes on mortality, office stress, obsessive compulsive behavior, awkward moments, imitation, and so much more.

I love quoting music, and this album is chock full of quotables. Here's a few I MUST share...

"Grab hold of your bootstraps... and pull like hell... ‘till gravity feels sorry for you and lets you go... as if you lack the proper chemicals to know the way it felt the last time you let yourself... fall this low" - Armchairs

"When I was just a little boy... I threw away all of my action toys ...While I became obsessed with Operation... With hearts and minds and certain glands... You gotta learn to keep a steady hand... And thus began my morbid fascination" - Dark Matter

"Oh don't tell me that it just isn't fair... don't speak about the cycles of life'... cause your thoughts are so soft I could cut 'em with a spork or a bride's... knife" - Spare-Ohs

There you have it... I've given you a taste of this treasure. Now go get it, and enjoy it!