With the over saturation of the industry, technology making the ability to record a feasible option for anyone who has ever picked up an instrument, and the Internet spreading music like the plague, what's often lost is authenticity. Currently, there are waves upon waves of like sounding bands making it easy to get flustered and discouraged in a search for something with sustenance. But rest assured, Andrew Bird is it. On his latest effort, Armchair Apocrypha, the classically trained Bird offers listeners a blend somewhere between Sufjan Stevens and Wilco, while retaining a style distinctly his own.
The album opens with "Fiery Crash", a track that offers a mellow form of indie rock fused with a catchy-ness worthy of the term pop sensibility. To anyone acquainted with the Chicago native's work, this type of writing comes as no surprise, and continues with the style Bird has been cultivating for years. Armchair Apocrypha manages an organic feel on a record both well thought out and heavily produced. It's this seemingly effortless quality to his intricate song structures which highlights Bird among his peers. Showcasing this talent is the records first single "Heretics" which starts with a catchy guitar hook before breaking into an onslaught of violins. The rest of the disc takes on a similar tone; switching between hauntingly insightful slower tracks, and the infectious up-tempo cuts.
In criticism of his work, Armchair Apocrypha offers little growth from 2005's The Mysterious Production of Eggs, and while the songs are obviously different, they present a vibe so similar it borders on stagnation. Bird's uniqueness as an artist, however, easily compensates for the stunt of growth. This time around, in addition to his ample use of an eclectic array on instrumentation, Bird takes after his namesake and adds bird-chirping noises to multiple tracks. Initially charming, these quirks wear off quickly, and on second and third listens prove distracting.
Applying the term transcendence in referral to Bird's music would fail in practice; there is no denying Bird's talent. To those inclined toward broad genre that is indie pop, this record serves as a must have to not only look cool among your peer group, but actually listen to as well. To those whose noses are less high in the air, Bird is worth checking out, though without more than a passing interest in the field he could prove dull. So it goes.
