Heaneyland!

Best of 2007, #4

#4: Andrew Bird, "Armchair Apocrypha"
At first, I was a little underwhelmed by this CD, partly because I'd heard about half the songs already in concert (and thus the recorded versions had to compete with the amazing live versions I remembered), and partly because the overall feel is so similar to that of his previous (near-perfect) album, "The Mysterious Production of Eggs". But it's such a lush album that it stuck with me, and I kept coming back to it, feeling more and more warmly about it each time. He's not repeating what he's done before, he's refining it. I might have missed seeing Jimi Hendrix do things with a guitar that no one else could do, but I get to watch Andrew Bird do the same thing with his violin; I feel pretty lucky about that, really. Can't wait to hear what he's going to do next.

Listen to "Plasticities" and "Dark Matter" and immediately improve the quality of your life. Then have some of this lovely Kool-Aid and buy the album.