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Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
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Track Listings
| 1. Fiery Crash |
| 2. Imitosis |
| 3. Plasticities |
| 4. Heretics |
| 5. Armchairs |
| 6. Darkmatter |
| 7. Simple X |
| 8. The Supine |
| 9. Cataracts |
| 10. Scythian Empires |
| 11. Spare-Ohs |
| 12. Yawn At The Apocalypse |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
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." It's hard to believe that, really, his music reigns, but when Bird adds understated acoustic guitars, Wurlitzer and Rhodes, and his own mesmerizing pizzicato violin, his songs take on a progressive mood all their own. The Chicago Bird's tenth album (and his debut for extraordinary Mississippi blues label Fat Possum) is perhaps his most diverse, expansive, and resourceful yet, catering to a half-dozen genres of music while exploring storylines that are naïve ("Dark Matter"), candid ("Fiery Crash"), and blatantly comical ("Armchairs"). Making no palpable effort to crack the conventional with overflowing melodies and love songs, Bird instead latches up the intellect to create tiny packages of literature that make always leave you thinking--and snapping your fingers at the same time. --Scott Holter
Album Description
Filled with layers of violin, glockenspiel, vocal harmonies, guitar, piano, and the most amazing whistling, Armchair Apocrypha is the latest from Andrew Bird (Chicago, IL.). Bird enlisted his touring drummer Martin Dosh (a.k.a. Dosh) and several other musicians to create this melancholy collage of gentle pop songs. Primaily a violinist, Andrew Bird has pioneered his own distinct sound as an eclectic instrumentalist and songwriter."Violinist-guitarist Andrew Bird goes further, filling his richly ornamented yet understated alt-pop with allusions to actual lab work." - Jon Dolan - BLENDER
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
pitchforkmedia,
By
This review is from: Armchair Apocrypha (Audio CD)
At first blush, this record is not nearly as captivating as Andrew Bird's previous three albums, but in his inimitable and subtle way, the Chicago singer-songwriter has here made yet another intricately detailed collection of songs. While Weather Systems and The Mysterious Production of Eggs found him discovering and exploring new territory, this is the album where he's built his house and now settles in and gets comfortable.In a subgenre stuffed full with mediocrity, Bird has developed a singular style that frees him to add or subtract anything he likes from it-- no matter what he does at this point, chances are you're never going to mistake his music for anyone else's. On Bird's latest album, Armchair Apocrypha, guitar is far more prominent than it once was-- something Bird has been working toward in concert for a couple of years now. This addition deepens the texture created by his core instruments-- pedal-controlled loops of pizzicato violin, drums, and glockenspiel. With the addition of overdubs-- waves of multi-tracked violin, eerie whistling, and dizzying violin cadenzas-- and heavy layering, it all becomes nearly symphonic in scope. The only thing that tosses and turns more than the music is Bird-- his lyrics are drawn from the kinds of thoughts that keep one up at night: "Do you wonder where the self resides/ Is it in your head or between your sides?/ Who will be the one who decides/ Its true location?" he sings on "Darkmatter", pondering the unknowable without resorting to pedestrian uses of the words "soul" and "God." His wordplay is in top form and serves as a perfect foil for the tension and release of arrangements like that on "Armchairs", where a piano pushes around chunks of listless violin. Oddly, Bird revisits a song from 2003's Weather Systems, his first album without former band the Bowl of Fire: "Imitosis" is built around a much faster version of the violin parts and vocal hook of Weather Systems' "I", but apart from those ingredients it's completely different-- and much better. The song takes a spiraling dive into Bird's interest in science and psychology and his distrust of the ways in which we use them in our world, spinning into an examination of the nature vs. nurture debate. These trips through a conflicted superego may not work quite as well without Bird's sonic stamp, or his voice. His singing can leap from a low deadpan to a flying falsetto in a heartbeat, and he varies his verses and choruses to throw you slightly off balance before serving his precisely delivered hooks. Bird never takes a melody where you expect it to go, as on the chorus of "Plasticities", which is practically power pop with its snappy guitar hook and massive vocal melody, but the way it's recorded and arranged it gets under your skin more than it gets into your head. "Scythian Empires" is one of the most subtle and elegant songs about the futility of battle and conquest written during the current Iraq War, linking brief mentions of Halliburton attaché cases and talk of "exiting empires" to an ancient, extinct civilization. The Scythians controlled vast swaths of modern-day Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan for around eight centuries but now are all but forgotten-- Bird's indirect connection of them to the imagery of the last four years shows the sweep of history that speedily ushers most of our endeavors to the dustbin, and he does it without beating us over the head. If there's a disappointing moment on the record, it's when "Heretics" pulls back from the drama of its swirling intro and slips into a mixture of spoken and sung lines instead of just going hell-for-leather to a big chorus. Otherwise, the biggest criticism you could level at it is that it's not better than the three albums that came before it-- but that scarcely matters when you're actually listening to it, because Armchair Apocrypha is ultimately another object of strange and unique beauty from this inventive songwriter and performer.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (39 customer reviews) 24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Masterpiece,
By Michael Frunzi - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Armchair Apocrypha (Audio CD)
After his stunning 2005 release "Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs", I was worried that Andrew Bird would not be able to live up to the ridiculously high standards that that album and his incredible live performances had established for him. My fears were completely unjustified, as "Armchair Apocrypha" certainly meets if not exceeds any and all expectations.While it's not quite as long as his last album (10 vocal and 2 instrumental tracks), each song is different and beautiful in its own way. Bird has stayed true to his style (violins, xylophones and his trademark whistling) but continued to develop his sound, and is the equal of Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, Sufjan or any other Indie Sweetheart band out there today. His lyrics are poetically uplifting one minute and dreadfully macabre the next, but always clever, insightful and unique. What sets Bird apart is his uncanny knack to be a complete individual while producing music that remains 100% palatable. This is truly a superior record; it is a must-have for any Bird fan and anyone else who loves music slightly off the beaten track. 17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another great release from Bird,
By somethingexcellent - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Armchair Apocrypha (Audio CD)
Never content to sit still and make the same record over and over again, Andrew Bird is one of those artists that creates delightful music that is enjoyed by everyone from jam-band audiences to NPR-listeners to people who might not normally go for his slightly more mellow brand of indie pop. I fall into those latter two groups, and although I don't consider myself a member of the typical coffee-house crowd, I do appreciate good songs, and Bird has really been honing his craft, culminating in a good album with Weather Systems, a great album in The Mysterious Production Of Eggs, and now another gem in Armchair Apocrypha.For one thing, Bird is one of only a handful or two of current singer songwriters who I consider to be a truly great lyricist. True, he gets a bit clever for his own good in a few places, but his word craft is simply outstanding in most places, conjuring up thoughtful lines that capture the beauty, frustrations, happiness, and downright absurdity of the world we live in. His music follows suit largely as well, with songs that move on odd time signatures with interesting instrumentation and of course touches of his whimsical whistling. One thing that's easy to notice about the new album is that guitar is used much more prominently than on his other albums, and usually it's not a bad thing at all. Opener "Fiery Crash" mixes electric piano, swoops of strings, some shuttling drums, and subdued vocals with dark lyrics into a gem of a song that begs for singing along. "Imitosis" follows, and again finds Bird plumbing his psyche lyrically while recycling a melody from both of his previous albums and turning in a song that betters both of them. The strong opening continues with "Plasticities," and the song is easily one of the better on the entire release, blending plucked strings, some subdued guitar that gurgles over in places and vocals that move from whispered to defiant. It's never rocking in a traditional way, but like the best of his songs, it's insanely hooky, with soft builds that turn into a pretty blowouts and words that lodge in your head. As mentioned above, the more guitar-driven songs (like "Heretic" and "Dark Matter") seem to fall into a bit more traditional structures and don't hold up quite as well, but even then there are still some nice payoffs. In places, Bird drops to practically neo-classical, and the results are flat-out gorgeous. The minute-long "The Supine" could easily go on for three times as long and still stun, while the album closer "Yawny And The Apocolypse" mixes field recordings and aching strings into something that is heartbreaking. For my money, the best song on the release is the piano/guitar driven "Scythian Empires," where Bird tackles the current war with his usual aplomb lyrically while musically backing it with understated and touching music that serves to highlight the words. As a whole, the album doesn't stand up quite as well as The Mysterious Production Of Eggs, but it's still another solid entry in Bird's discography. (from almost cool music reviews) 15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keeps getting better,
By Jason Bunting "Chocoholic Software Engineer" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Armchair Apocrypha (Audio CD)
Although I am still quite fond of his earlier work (Thrills, Oh! The Grandeur and The Swimming Hour), I must admit that Bird keeps getting better and better. I don't know that I would characterize this as being "dark" per se (as many of the other reviewers have) but Bird definitely deals with subject matters that are not typical of pop music (thank heavens!).It is helpful to know that many of these songs have evolved from earlier works, and that often his lyrics are not as significant as people hope them to be. What I mean is that, according to his own account, Bird often puts things together because of a sound inherent in their audible manifestation rather than because of a meaning he wishes to convey. The fun part is trying to figure out which lyrics are there for the latter and which for the former. Scythian Empires has to be the best piece on this album as far as composition, in my opinion; but the album wouldn't be the same without Dark Matter, Spare-Ohs, and Imitosis (the long-awaited 'official' incarnation of what was once 'Capital I'). Anyway, just do yourself a favor and get this album! Check out "The Official Unofficial Andrew Bird Fansite" for lyrics and other such and similar things. Also: if you ever get the chance, you will want to see Bird live - it is unlike anything you have ever seen before. That may sound trite, but it is true nonetheless. Unfortunately for some, fortunately for others that have grown accustomed to and even love it, Bird does not feel obligated to play songs the same way twice - ever. One of his older songs, "Why?", must exist in a hundred different manifestations; Bird is always trying new things with established songs, which is risky but often bears amazing fruit. |
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