Album Review: My Finest Work Yet by Andrew Bird

He could be right. As easy as it would be to claim that Andrew Bird's foray into the mainstream was totally unanticipated, it's actually been lingering just around the corner for a while now. It'd be fair to assume that most listeners still associate Bird with the quaint, delightful folk of Break it Yourself , or perhaps his most recent classically-influenced project Echolocations. However, hints at a mainstream breakthrough date back to 2005's 'Fake Palindromes', while 2016's Are You Serious saw him take his most pronounced turn towards cleaner-cut melodies.

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The role of whistling in popular music has not had a proud history. Pullover-bedecked folkie Roger Whittaker is probably whistling’s most famous proponent, and for every person who swoons as Otis Redding pursing his lips in Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay, there’s another who shudders in horror when the opening chords of Young Folks by Peter Bjorn & John start up. Andrew Bird has been whistling away for 20 years, but there’s far more to his music than that gimmick.

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Indie auteur Andrew Bird, in his major releases, has recently made a transition from the abstruse art-pop of his early career to more earthy, nearly traditional singer-songwriter fare. While maintaining his distinct sound and presence, he seems to be growing less guarded and remote. The days of his long retreats to that western Illinois farmhouse are over.

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Given that he's as well known for his whistling as for his singing, not everyone picks up an Andrew Bird album expecting a cogent lyrical statement. The impressionistic verse that's dominated his work bears this out, but given the cultural tumult of life in America in 2019, it's not surprising that even Bird has something to say about the world at large. My Finest Work Yet (never let it be said Bird is afraid of making a bold statement) isn't the work of an artist mounting a soapbox, but most of the songs do follow a consistent theme that in a time of chaos and upheaval, apathy and cynicism are our worst enemies, and that when we have enemies rather than adversaries, we've given the opposition power rather than blunted it.

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Andrew Bird's newest record, My Finest Work Yet, lives up to its title. As a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and gifted whistler, Bird pushes his artistic boundaries musically and visually. The album art portrays Bird recreating the famous "The Death of Marat" painting by Jacques-Louis David. Blending themes of politics and modern science into his fashion of storytelling, My Finest Work Yet is a true tour de force.   The opening track, "Sisyphus," is heavily embellished with Bird's trademark whistling; the energizing, upbeat song with ….

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Andrew Bird's work the past decade has scrutinized on the link between sound and time. He made an acoustic album in a barn; he recorded an instrumental album at the bottom of a canyon, and then another while standing in a river; he toured for years with gigantic spinning gramophone horns; he turned a single song into a seven-track EP by treating it like a film score; he made an actual film score. Along the way, Bird's image started drifting away from playful fiction-spinner and toward haggard philosopher: sometimes isolating and difficult to follow, always interesting.

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There was a disarming warmth and forthrightness to this record, written in a week-long outpouring of lucid meditation on what it means to share your life with another person. His tenth studio album, it stood in contrast to an earlier discography typified by its smart but coded messages - enjoyably, if sometimes frustratingly, impenetrable. This year's My Finest Work Yet builds on this explicitness, but replaces the protective layer between Bird and his listener.

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