Andrew Bird is one of the most notable, if not the most notable, up and coming superstars in the Chicago music scene. He has been around for a while but is really hitting his stride now. He had a killer performance of “Fitz & Dizzyspells” last night on Letterman, his album dropped last week and he has a massive tour out there to see the kids. This is one of those guys I have always wanted to see super bad, but it has just never materialized. I didn’t quite understand his greatness when I was at Hideout Block Party where he was when I saw Bloc Party so I missed him there, and his Pritzker performance was after I had left Chicago. This album really does describe

Ok, this album is fucking awesome. I know from reading other reviews around online, people generally like, but mostly dismiss it as a poppy/happy whistle-fest. Now there are certainly parts of that on the album, but the second half of this album goes so far beyond that and really hits a total home run in my book. He has found a way to take his soft-spoken violin/indie pop methodology and broadened his horizons into some cool new areas that results in just some damn good songs.

The opener “Oh No” is really where the poppy whistling begins. I really like this song a lot, and I think it is really good, but I think it kind of belies the rest of the album and sets it off on the wrong foot, because on first listen you are comparing every other song to this because it makes such a strong impression. In reality it evolves from here into new and exciting areas I think. “Masterswarm” is the start of that, with a 60s folk feeling intro that leads into an almost Bossa Nova/Island esque kind of song. It has a really cool sound but it is certainly a departure from the beginning. The violin is perfect here, there are some whistles for good measure, and he actually kind of shows off his vocal chops a bit. “Fitz & Dizzyspells” seems like the clear ’single’ on here, and it was of course what he hit us with last night on Letterman. It is a great, great song. It is much more upbeat and strays into the most melodic areas of alterna-pop, sounding perfect the whole way of course. There is some crazy whistling towards the end. It sounded perfect on Letterman last night to the point I thought he was whistle-syncing (not sure if that’s a word or not). Who knows.

“Effigy” starts out with an interesting orchestral intro but leads into a nice acoustic guitar riff. It then kicks off as an almost country song, leading to some duet vocals and more fiddling. Slow and sincere, just a well done song. “Tenuousness” has some cool picked violin sounds to begin, and has cool background harmonies and whistles. Very echoed so it almost sounds like an old western movie song. “Nomenclature” is the last song of what I will dub the ‘first half’. It has a fair sound to it, but it may be the weak spot here. It sounds cool, and actually has a pretty cool outro where the electric guitar re-enters the picture, and the end of the song kind of foreshadows the direction the rest of the album will take: unpredictable, eccentric and just awesome.

“Ouo” is a short synth/keys instrumental track that to me symolises the shift to the back half of the album. Then “Not A Robot, But A Ghost” comes on with its haunting clarinet intro over the kitchen sink “15 Step” kind of drums with some creepy, ghoulish whistling thrown in on it. This seems to really become a song about ending the war, but the way it is presented is incredibly brilliant. It boils down to “I’ll crack the codes and end the war”, but the driving drum beat played behind the offbeat instrumentation going on around it really reminds me of “15 Step”. The first chorus is a haunting riff, then the second bridge becomes a somewhat bittersweet departure, all the time building on a constant beat and rhythm that just works awesomely together. Then the last outro becomes almost triumphant sounding, but it doesn’t go all the way, and the basis of the song returns after a short whistle/orchestral break before hitting the main beat again. Great song.

“Unfolding Fans” is another electro-instrumental break that realigns and settles the listener after the chaos of the last song, leading into “Anonanimal”. Another muted/picked intro, this time with accompanying strings. Once again sounding somewhat foreign, somewhat familiar. The vocals jump in after about 50 seconds and it all builds together until the pounding bass drum jumps in for a haunting chorus. Then at about 2 minutes the guitar takes over and the rest washes away as the journey is made from that to an almost celebratory stomp/clap break, which becomes a great fucking bridge. The guitars return in force for a brief rock out, then that clears away for a somber violin/vocal closing over echoed splashes. It pretty much goes from a place of uncertainty and fear to triumph and power to almost a forlorn place. All over the place but I love it.

“Natural Disaster” starts out like a fresh ray of sunshine compared to the dark places we traveled on the last two songs. The song is pretty much all guitar and vocal, with some backing elements thrown in. Compared to everything else it is so simple and beautiful. I’m not sure the lyrics really match what the sound of the song is. I think they are competing interests in the song here, but the sound of hope is always in there. “The Privateers” is a fairly standard indie-folk kind of number that is just well done. It has a driving rhythm as the other instruments come in half way through.

“Souverian” closes out the record for all intensive purposes, with just an instrumental outro to follow. It is again fairly straightforward, but some of the cool backing vocals just make it work very well. Then it stops about 4 minutes in and takes a detour into a slow, dreamy, spacey outro with echoey distorted guitars and a meandering violin riff over piano. It dwells on his past mistakes, and sadly ends with “still my lover won’t return to me”. Also a really great song. “On Ho!” is just an orchestral outro to the album that really kind of sums it up pretty nicely. It has elements that sound hopeful for the future as well as parts that sound mindful/regretful of the past.

Anyway, I am really, really impressed with this album and how much rests below the surface of a first glance at the album. I think he has done a terrific job of combining different styles and sounds to come out with something that works on a lot of different levels, and that really transcends well beyond the initial poppiness of it. In that sense it also has something for everyone. There are songs that will initially perk up your ears and others you will come back to and rediscover later. I think when you operate as a kind of ‘genre’ artist, as Andrew Bird can sometimes be seen to be, sometimes you may become introspective to that genre, but on this album he is showing that despite having a definite ’sound’ of his own, he is experimenting and building with sounds and ideas from all over the place, and it just works very well.

BV Rate: 89

As I have previously mentioned, he has tour dates upcoming, so go see him if at all possible. It seems extremely likely he will be at SXSW at some point as well, though that is unconfirmed as far as I know right now:

Jan 28 – New York, NY – Carnegie Hall
Jan 30 – Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre
Feb 3 – Washington, DC – 930 Club
Feb 4 – Atlanta, GA – The Variety Playhouse
Feb 6 – Orlando, FL – The Plaza Theatre
Feb 7 – New Orleans, LA – House of Blues
Feb 12 – Austin, TX – The Paramount Theatre
Feb 13 – Albuquerque, NM – The El Rey Theater
Feb 14 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theater
Feb 15 – San Diego, CA – SOMA
Feb 18 – Los Angeles, CA – The Orpheum Theatre
Feb 19 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Feb 20 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Feb 21 – Portland, OR – The Roseland Theater
Feb 23 – Seattle, WA – The Moore Theater
Feb 24 – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory
Feb 25 – Murray, UT – The Murray Theater
Feb 26 – Denver, CO – The Ogden Theater
Feb 27 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown
Mar 15 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
Mar 17 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
Mar 21 – Houston, TX – House of Blues
Mar 22 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
Mar 23 – Oxford, MS – The Lyric Oxford
Apr 3 – Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Apr 4 – Montreal, QC – Le National
Apr 5 – South Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
Apr 7 – Pittsburgh, PA – Carnegie Music Hall
Apr 10 – Chicago, IL – The Civic Opera House
Apr 11 – Minneapolis, MN – The State Theater