Andrew Bird - Armchair Aprocrypha

John

By Will Hitchins

Andrew Bird is one of those artists who feel like they should be far more well known than they are, his previous album The Mysterious Production of Eggs being a wonderful array of plucked violin, perfectly picked vocal melodies and a plethora of found percussion.

Armchair Apocrypha is largely more of the same but this doesn’t detract from the fact that it is a lovely collection of songs written by a singer songwriter of astounding interest and originality.

As with the majority of his work Andrew flexes his multi instrumentalist credentials, playing the vast majority of the instruments on the record, except this time he has enlisted percussionist Dosh, who like Mr Bird does with violin, loops his drums to create wonderful layers of sound.

This is used in full effect in Simple X, one of the more unique tracks on the LP, where looped drums and vigorously played violin come together to make an upbeat dancey number.

This album isn’t going to grab you instantly but give it time and Mr Bird will work his way under your skin, and perhaps into your heart.