Singer-Songwriter Andrew Bird Is Almost ‘Serious’

This program was originally broadcast on April 01, 2016.

Alt-folk hero Andrew Bird joins us with his sweet, layered songs of love and chemistry.

Singer songwriter Andrew Bird trained classically and plays all over. On violin, guitar, xylophone, glockenspiel. His music has been called chamber, alt, folk, rock...take your pick. The randomness of The Band, the poetics of Leonard Cohen, the language – before anyway – of Roget’s Thesaurus. His latest album drops today. Maggie Lange writes in GQ that he sings that everything is worthless, and it sounds exuberant. This hour On Point, Andrew Bird. -- Tom Ashbrook

Andrew Bird, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His latest album is "Are You Serious" Previous albums include "Armchair Apocrypha," "Noble Beast" and "Break It Yourself." (@andrewbird)

GQ: An Escape from Brunch and Misery with Andrew Bird — "Andrew Bird whistles as he walks. Of course he does. It's likely that Bird is unable to cease the constant production of melodic sounds. He is famously prolific: Thirteen studio albums, six live albums, nine EPs since 1996. Throughout his tenure in the contemporary American folk-curiosities scene, Bird's lyrics have been studied for their verbose balladry, and his instrumentation is praised for its mercurial layering. Now, at 42, the chamber-folk musician is about to release his heaviest and most spare album yet."

Los Angeles Times: 'Are You Serious' composer and performer Andrew Bird finally catches a little sunshine — "Over the last three years, the composer, violinist and singer Andrew Bird, his wife, Katherine Tsina, and their 4-year-old son, Sam, have endured their share of trials. The experiences in part prompted Bird and his family to retreat to Los Angeles from New York a few years ago, he said while sitting at the kitchen table of their Los Feliz house."

Pretty Much Amazing: Andrew Bird's Are You Serious — "Before you listen to Andrew Bird’s new album Are You Serious (and I’ll get it out of the way now: yes, you should listen to Andrew Bird’s new album Are You Serious), go out and get yourself a decent pair of headphones. There’s a lot going on in nearly every one of these 11 songs, and missing a single instrument in the mix means that you’re missing out on a key element of why this album works. It has plenty of flaws, some more obvious than others, and it comes close to running out of steam toward the middle of its 43 minutes, but the production and sheer musical prowess on display propel the album beyond its shortcomings."