skygiants

agonistes asked me to write about Andrew Bird for December ninth!

So for a while all I really knew about Andrew Bird was that Fake Palindromes was an amazing song that belonged on all my playlists. I don't even remember where I first got it from - maybe fahye? Maybe a fahye fanmix about Fire Nation kids? That sounds right.

ANYWAY. Then agonistes started talking a lot Andrew Bird and started the indoctrination process, and I went to an Andrew Bird concert with batyatoon and had a delightful experience, and somewhere along the way I ended up with thirty or forty Andrew Bird songs at a go and had to start the process of sort of working them out in my head to where they existed as individual songs. This is what usually happens to me when I get a lot of music by one artist at once -- everything blends together, until all of a sudden one thing stands out, and a piece of lyrics or a turn of phrase is suddenly not just existing pleasantly in my ears but telling me a story that I care about.

It happens slowly for me with Andrew Bird -- his work doesn't shout, and his lyrics are fascinating and puzzling, and it takes a while for each one to settle in properly. But once they do, they stick. The ones that have the most presence for me, right now, are "Dark Matter," "Not a Robot But a Ghost," "Candy Shop," "Fiery Crash," and "Oh, Sister." And, of course, "Fake Palindromes," which continues to be THE GREATEST.

And, for the sake of completion, two Andrew Bird vids which I will never make but always map out in my head anyway: the FMA "Candy Shop" vid about Team Mustang Vs. the Homunculi, and the Baccano! "Dark Matter" vid about Claire Stanfield.