I’d like to second Mr ClickyClicky on how much I like Andrew Bird’s new album Armchair Apocrypha. The mix of instrumentation and atmospherics play well together. Stand out tracks include “Fiery Crash” which almost sounds like a Wilco (or even Superchunk) song and “Imitosis” which is lyrically depressed (“it was anything but hear the voice / that says we’re all basically alone”) but the delivery is very catchy. Perhaps the strongest track is the 7-minute “Armchairs” where his voice climbs and the dynamics are reminiscent of Jeff Buckley.
This weekend Andrew Bird appeared on Studio360 in an episode about being alone. Bird talks about moving into a barn in rural Illinois by himself to work on his music. But he’s back among people again and will be playing at the Berklee Performance Center on May 16th. Tickets were getting into the thin air section when I bought mine.