2005 Favorites: Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs



Andrew Bird's previous album, Weather Systems is one of my favorite albums from the first half of this decade. My love for it was almost instant; songs with such sincere melancholy and longing usually do that to me. This will probably sound very melodramatic, but there are some albums, some songs that connect with me in an organic way. It's almost as if they were written in my own DNA. That's how I felt after listening to Weather Systems for the first time.

It's with these high expectations that I listen to Andrew's new album, The Mysterious Production of Eggs. Would it produce the same sacred response from me? While it doesn't match the synergies I have with Weather Systems, Mysterious Productions evokes a different, but equally positive set of emotions. There's more joy and whimsy in this album. Hope replaces futility; mystery and opportunity replace inevitability and decay. Bird's strength is his emotional sincerity. The playfulness of this album never becomes meaningless frivolity and the seriousness never becomes overwrought angst.

The Mysterious Production of Eggs is available now on Righteous Babe records. Click here to download an MP3 sample.