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| Track list: 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. Yawny At The Apocalypse Running time: 48 minutes Released: 2007 |
I forget what put me on to Andrew Bird, but I remember which track it was that gave me my entry point: a freely downloaded version of The Trees Were Mistaken from LastFM - not that it is free anymore. I was struck by something - possibly the whistling - and immediately bought more of his material, though not all of it. I follow his releases still, but I listen less often than I should, which is why I do not really know what to expect from this disc.
It has quite a start, a repeated guitar chord for 15-20 seconds. OK, expectations were all over the place, but I am fairly confident this was not how I thought it would open. Live and learn. Bird's vocal style is a lilting one and when his voice joins in it is definitely moving towards ground I could peg as his were I catching a random listen of the track. In fact the first instance of whistling would probably have given it away first but still. I would not put Fiery Crash up there as a song but I also do not think it will be representative of the album - and I am immediately validated on that point when Imitosis brings a very different arrangement and style, softer and more rounded somehow. It gives his song more room to breathe, making the vocal the star of the show.
It has been another slow week for me on this project; its a busy time. Since the last effort - a one-tracker at that! - on Tuesday I have neglected this for one evening, but otherwise been too occupied to find time. It is now Sunday evening, after a couple of solid days of roleplaying, on the back of a Christmas party. Thursday was the night I took off, and that was because I was so darn tired I could only collapse and watch bad football on the TV all evening. I am hoping that Andrew Bird will ease me into a relaxed state to get a good nights rest, because I bloody well need it. Most of his material that I have does have a fairly easy pace to it so the hope is there. This album thus far has a bit of a brasher sound than I would generally associate with Bird, a touch more prominence for the electric guitars, but that could be misremembering his other material as much as anything else.
I find Bird a good singer. Tonally his voice appeals, the up and down style fits nicely with the tunes and I feel his music is coming across most strongly when the song is central. I say that, but I am not picking up on lyrics here again so the song is not really central to my enjoyment. My mental state is not configured for that level of attention, and I have mentioned before that picking out the artists words when I am trying to write my own is unfortunately difficult and does not seem to occur naturally. The delivery though, the swells and falls, the roll, the pauses and the emotion it carries, that does come across nicely. Dramatic at times, I mostly get a sense of warmth from his singing and a sense that because I am not following the songs I am missing out. A pity, that.
Whistles. How many artists use whistling? I cannot think of any more off the top of my head though there must be plenty; for Andrew Bird, I would call it a signature of sorts. Darkmatter starts with a whistled intro, the third or fourth time this type of human-produced sound has been employed that I have noticed, but the most prominent by far. After the intro it does not appear again until the denouement, but it leaves a mark on the track. I am surprised at the relative rarity of the technique, if only because I often find myself whistling along to tunes when I am listening in private. I would never submit anyone else to the horror of my attempts at accompaniment but there is something strangely satisfying about singing or whistling along with a favourite song. Not something I find myself doing now (or for other posts here) because - again - of the attention it requires that takes away from the exercise. I guess the big test for that will come up when I start hitting more familiar material - the stuff that always has me badly belting out something in approximation of tune and time - but I don't see it happening.
I realise I have not written too much specific content about the tracks here - this post appears to have taken a more general form, speaking to the artist, their techniques, and a load of irrelevant stuff about me. So be it. Somehow I am three quarters through the disc already, and it has been a pleasant path that my ears have been travelling. Most of the early brashness has faded, the tracks taking on a more acoustic nature and to my taste this is an improvement. Scythian Empires was the one tune that I thought I would really recognise when I looked at the track list, however now I reach it, the vocal is not quite what I recalled. The general pattern of the track is as remembered but the vocal is much softer, much less strained, the whistles are back. There is a constant loop provided by some plucked instrumentation I cannot fathom which gives the structure to a song which is somewhat lacking in the lyrical department (in terms of how many there actually are, again I lost the track of them). It is suddenly over without ever quite taking off. Memory, lose 10 points.
There have been no bad songs here; some better than others, certainly, and I was not 100% taken with Fiery Crash, but I think that Spare-Ohs is probably my pick of the bunch, even as it re-electrifies. The combination of the harmonious vocal (a female voice appears in company), the whistles and a tune that made me smile just works. I am at a loss at this point to communicate why but it clicks in a way that the other tunes here did not quite manage - like brining in the best bits from across the disc into one place. Of course, I say no bad songs; there is the closer which is garbage - it is an atmospheric piece that just manages to be actively unpleasant somehow. I am going to get rid of it so I have a nicer end in future, assuming I ever deign to listing to Armchair Apocrypha as an album again.
Overall I was entertained and uplifted by this one. Now off to bed to see about the relaxed...
It has quite a start, a repeated guitar chord for 15-20 seconds. OK, expectations were all over the place, but I am fairly confident this was not how I thought it would open. Live and learn. Bird's vocal style is a lilting one and when his voice joins in it is definitely moving towards ground I could peg as his were I catching a random listen of the track. In fact the first instance of whistling would probably have given it away first but still. I would not put Fiery Crash up there as a song but I also do not think it will be representative of the album - and I am immediately validated on that point when Imitosis brings a very different arrangement and style, softer and more rounded somehow. It gives his song more room to breathe, making the vocal the star of the show.
It has been another slow week for me on this project; its a busy time. Since the last effort - a one-tracker at that! - on Tuesday I have neglected this for one evening, but otherwise been too occupied to find time. It is now Sunday evening, after a couple of solid days of roleplaying, on the back of a Christmas party. Thursday was the night I took off, and that was because I was so darn tired I could only collapse and watch bad football on the TV all evening. I am hoping that Andrew Bird will ease me into a relaxed state to get a good nights rest, because I bloody well need it. Most of his material that I have does have a fairly easy pace to it so the hope is there. This album thus far has a bit of a brasher sound than I would generally associate with Bird, a touch more prominence for the electric guitars, but that could be misremembering his other material as much as anything else.
I find Bird a good singer. Tonally his voice appeals, the up and down style fits nicely with the tunes and I feel his music is coming across most strongly when the song is central. I say that, but I am not picking up on lyrics here again so the song is not really central to my enjoyment. My mental state is not configured for that level of attention, and I have mentioned before that picking out the artists words when I am trying to write my own is unfortunately difficult and does not seem to occur naturally. The delivery though, the swells and falls, the roll, the pauses and the emotion it carries, that does come across nicely. Dramatic at times, I mostly get a sense of warmth from his singing and a sense that because I am not following the songs I am missing out. A pity, that.
Whistles. How many artists use whistling? I cannot think of any more off the top of my head though there must be plenty; for Andrew Bird, I would call it a signature of sorts. Darkmatter starts with a whistled intro, the third or fourth time this type of human-produced sound has been employed that I have noticed, but the most prominent by far. After the intro it does not appear again until the denouement, but it leaves a mark on the track. I am surprised at the relative rarity of the technique, if only because I often find myself whistling along to tunes when I am listening in private. I would never submit anyone else to the horror of my attempts at accompaniment but there is something strangely satisfying about singing or whistling along with a favourite song. Not something I find myself doing now (or for other posts here) because - again - of the attention it requires that takes away from the exercise. I guess the big test for that will come up when I start hitting more familiar material - the stuff that always has me badly belting out something in approximation of tune and time - but I don't see it happening.
I realise I have not written too much specific content about the tracks here - this post appears to have taken a more general form, speaking to the artist, their techniques, and a load of irrelevant stuff about me. So be it. Somehow I am three quarters through the disc already, and it has been a pleasant path that my ears have been travelling. Most of the early brashness has faded, the tracks taking on a more acoustic nature and to my taste this is an improvement. Scythian Empires was the one tune that I thought I would really recognise when I looked at the track list, however now I reach it, the vocal is not quite what I recalled. The general pattern of the track is as remembered but the vocal is much softer, much less strained, the whistles are back. There is a constant loop provided by some plucked instrumentation I cannot fathom which gives the structure to a song which is somewhat lacking in the lyrical department (in terms of how many there actually are, again I lost the track of them). It is suddenly over without ever quite taking off. Memory, lose 10 points.
There have been no bad songs here; some better than others, certainly, and I was not 100% taken with Fiery Crash, but I think that Spare-Ohs is probably my pick of the bunch, even as it re-electrifies. The combination of the harmonious vocal (a female voice appears in company), the whistles and a tune that made me smile just works. I am at a loss at this point to communicate why but it clicks in a way that the other tunes here did not quite manage - like brining in the best bits from across the disc into one place. Of course, I say no bad songs; there is the closer which is garbage - it is an atmospheric piece that just manages to be actively unpleasant somehow. I am going to get rid of it so I have a nicer end in future, assuming I ever deign to listing to Armchair Apocrypha as an album again.
Overall I was entertained and uplifted by this one. Now off to bed to see about the relaxed...
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