Customer Reviews

The Mysterious Production of Eggs

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One caution must be shared with those expecting Bird's return to the traditional Hot Jazz of his early days with the Squirrel Nut Zippers, this album may turn out disappointing for them. Not because it lack remarkable merit but because Bird's eggs are in search of new baskets, if you pardon the obvious pun.
As he began to prove, partially in Swimming Hour and even more so in Weather Systems, Andrew Bird has a lot more to say and more genres to explore and enrich. As good as his early work is, The Mysterious Production of Eggs, although a departure, is a remarkable work. Mature, daring, yet far from the half-baked albums you may be used to expect when an artist dares to experiments with a winning formula.
The best way to describe the new output is that it reveals a more tender and brooding musical vision than past recordings, although not devoid of sharp edges. Songs like "Tables and Chairs" and "Measuring Cups" are good examples of this, where the strings remain exquisite, or the lyrics distill a quiet sarcasm ("RX Missiles") yet their melodies visit new territories.
From the whispered Folk of "Sovay" to the Badly Drawn Boy-like Pop of "Opposite Day," Bird pushes the envelope of what he's done before. Actually, a comparison with Damon Gough seems fitting here. Although I would not claim that their songs will remind you of one another's, I was struck by a similar willingness they both show for not resting on their musical laurels.
Whether you have not heard this man or you mourn that recent albums are not what you used to enjoy, this is an excellent album by an artist who takes chances and follows his heart ... as any real artist would. Think of it as one the early jewels of 2005.

I really don't write enough reviews for music that I find amazing, due to simple laziness. Now that it is summer, I have little excuse not to preach the gospel of incredible music as much as I can.
Another thing that prompted me to finally write this review was when I saw that the average rating had dropped to 4.5 stars. I don't want to whine about something as meaningless as an amazon rating (the average rating on this site is highly skewed toward the 5 end of the spectrum), but must tell what distinguishes this formerly 5-star album from all of the other 4.5 albums.
For one thing, Andrew Bird is really a rare talent. As a solo artist, he does not just display potential, but rather real, tangible artistry. He is a songwriter, violinist, guitarist, vocalist and of course an excellent whistler.

The way that he can manipulate his many talents is obvious by the intricate and gorgeous melodies filling "The Mysterious Production". Many artists tend to get ahead of themselves and their abilities when they posess such talent, but Bird does nothing of the sort.

Each of the 14 songs on this album are easily digestible, catchy pop melodies. They delightfully range from playfully funny to devastatingly sad to exuberantly happy - helping to make this album easy to listen to in its entirety without boring. All of these aspects furthermore establish that Andrew Bird has not forgot the fading art of making an ALBUM, rather than a collection of singles and filler.

To describe this album in a piecewise fashion; the music sounds of orchestral pop due to the bold stumming of guitar and violin alike; the sounds are incredibly rich and diverse, emerging with all of the depth of an entire orchestra; the lyrics are poetic and playfully pedantic, but never banal; the voice is rich as chocolate and among the best of contemporary musicians; the hooks are excellent and catchy in the best way possible.

I would rate this album a 9.3/10.0, and recommend it to any mature music fan. You would do well to heed my recommendation given my status as a well-respected and genteel 15-year old music fan. Haha. I may lack in years, but it doesn't take much to recognize the glory and magnificence of "The Mysterious Production Eggs". Few other albums in 2005 could compete.

This album's tone is complex, contemplative, beautiful and melodic is the best of ways.

As always, comparisons of one artist to another help only moderately. However, I can say that those who enjoy Badly Drawn Boy, Lou Barlow, the Frames, The Red House Painters and other such artists will probably find a new friend in "The Mysterious Production of Eggs".

If you like Iron and Wine or Sufjan Stevens, there's also a likelihood of you appreciating Andrew Bird, although Bird is more upbeat than Nick Drake, Iron & Wine or Stevens.

The album's sound quality and production value are perfect; the lyrics are thoughtful, sarcastic, odd and observant rather than superficial or overwhelmed by lamentations of lost love.Bird is an interesting writer, one who may be a fan of Vonnegut's signature black humor.

To catergorize this music is slightly difficult: it embraces singer-songwriter alternative rock quality, neo-folk simplicity and the more contemporary boldness of using multiple instruments (like Badly Drawn Boy does)to complement pleasant, mellow (and sometimes impassioned) vocals.

Bird's release seems right at home with the 2004-5 style of music, but so far his album seems to be the product of the hardest work in editing. If Bird had been around in the 1960s-70s, he may have toured with Simon & Garfunkle, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, Cat Stevens or perhaps Bob Dylan (although, he doesn't neccesarily create the same type of music, his artistic purpose seems tantamount.)

4.8 Stars for this album. Well worth $14, if you can afford it. Otherwise, borrow it from a library or a friend.

Andrew Bird's music at first seems like a shimmering chameleon. What at first you think will be a bluegrass song suddenly gets attacked by the fuzziest guitar crunch you have heard on a record like this in years. Suddenly, the tempo picks up and violins and echoed backing vocals surround a spacey synth flute. The next song explodes in a cacophony of American country and eastern European instruments. The lyrics meanwhile, ramble insanely about some world which you feel like you've known has existed secretly but you're only now entering. Bird then finishes a song with the oddly unmenacing "I'm gonna tie your wrist with leather, and drill a tiny hole into your head." The entire album is littered with odd turns of phrase ("I thought you were a life-sized paper doll, propped up in a hardware store... as we're marching off to war.").

The refreshing thing is that this obvious weirdness doesn't seem cultivated for weirdness's sake. Bird is in complete musical control over this whole album, and his lyrics are so heartfelt, you can't help but agree with him, even if you can't understand their secret meaning.

Then, sometime around the twentieth listen, it all starts to make sense, and you can't stop smiling.

Every person I've shown this to, regardless of musical preference, has loved this album. Simple as that. Buy this now and enjoy it for a long time.

I was a late-comer in discovering the music of Andrew Bird. Although I knew that he had released several albums (one that even included cover art by fabulous designer Chris Ware), I just never sought out his work for some reason. About two years ago, though, I found his Weather Systems album for a really cheap price in a used bin at a local record store and after listening to that release, I found myself enraptured by his unique sound. While Bird's early work seemed to fall in line slightly closer to the work of that of his former group (the Squirrel Nut Zippers), he has since taken a completely different path, creating lush indie pop music that prominently features unique instrumentation that includes his expressive whistling (yes!).

The Mysterious Production Of Eggs is a step up for Bird both in terms of overall sound and output. Running over fifty minutes, it dwarfs his concise previous album, and most of that extra time he's able to completely hold the listener. In fact, the release opens up with what may be some of the best tracks that he's ever done (some of which are among the best tracks I've heard by anyone this year). "Sovay" mixes soft rhodes piano with strummed guitar, mandolin, and sleepy vocals by Bird. "A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left" starts with only vocals and guitar but soon leaps into a string-touched track that seems to move quickly with evocative lyrics, subtle programmed percussion, and some glorious whistling.

As if the previous two tracks were leading right into it, "Fake Palindromes" takes off with a gallop and rumbles forward with bursts of strings, guitars, and chimes as Bird again showcases his clever lyrics that stir up all kinds of bizarre imagery (in a particularly great moment, Bird corrects himself after he's used the wrong word in a verse. After the giddy procession of the first string of tracks on the release, things calm down a bit, but there's no lack of memorable melodies.

Although it's a minor quibble, one of those melodies (in "Skin Is, My") is repeated nearly verbatim from Weather Systems, but it's more of a sequel to that track (that admittingly builds to something more rocking. "Tables And Chairs" again strips things back to an electronic rhythm, some chimes, strings and other subtle instrumentation, yet the whole thing feels so natural that one would never guess it's quite a distance from where Bird started out on his first release. With the latter half of the album not keeping up quite the same pace as the first, the album seems to run just a smidge long, but once again it's a minor quibble. With the release, Bird seems to have really reached a stride in terms of his overall sound and the result is one of my favorite albums of the year so far.

(from almost cool music reviews)

Subtle, sublime and wonderfully complex, Andrew Bird serves up a riviting album that's more enjoyable with each subsequent listening. For those who have been following Andrew Bird's divergence from his Squirrel Nut Zipper days, the experimentation and evolution of his previous albums, Weather Systems and The Swimming Hour, finally reaches a benchmark with The Mysterious Production of Eggs. An album that will leave you both satisfied and hungry for more.

You know, you really cannot go wrong buying any one of Andrew Bird's CDs. Just don't expect the usual. He's doing something different. It seems he's always doing something different. But, and understandably so, it's hard to capture all that's amazing about Andrew on a mere CD. So my advice to you is to check his website daily - and if he comes to a town anywhere near you, GO SEE HIM LIVE! (If you've never seen him live, bless you, you're in for a real treat.) Prepare to be left speechless. After the show, buy a CD directly from him - he'll sign it! (He may even write some molecular formulas.) Take this moment to compose yourself, find your words again, then tell him how amazing he is. He'll say "thanks". You'll walk slowly away...

I've listened to Andrew Bird obsessively for the past week and still can't get enough. This is a beautiful, melodic, enlightening album with amazingly complex arrangements and smart, quirky lyrics. Bird is a phenomenal talent with a lot to say and an incredible arsenal of talents with which to say it.

Yes, he's an incredible violinist, but Bird uses the violin only to server the greater structure of his songs, many of which include guitar, drums, bass, xylophone, and of course his amazing whistling, which is powerful, beautiful, and eerie.

I found out about Bird through his recent interview on NPR. The chat with him was just as interesting as the music they played. Check it out on NPR.org.

It's such a pleasure listening to an album unfold, and to an artist gracefully inventing his own idiom. These songs have an unassuming beauty that makes most pop music (including that of artists I genuinely like) seem cliched or overbearing. The musical variety here does not undo the coherence of Bird's sound. A stunning CD. I will make a point to hear him live.