The Mysterious Production of Eggs (2005)

February 8th, 2005, Mr. Bird releases his first studio album in nearly two years, The Mysterious Production of Eggs, on Righteous Babe Records in the US and Fargo records in Europe.

The recording sessions for Eggs saw Bird scrap the album three times and travel between studios in Chicago, Los Angeles and his own home studio on a farm in Northern Illinois. The album took final shape with the production help of David Boucher whose credits include Randy Newman and Paul Westerberg.

The record deals with nothing less than the mysteries of childhood, creativity and modern science - epic in scope and minute in detail. It is accompanied by artwork and illustrations for every song by accomplished Chicago based artist Jay Ryan. Equally unusual is Bird’s solo live show at which, with the aid of a sampling pedal, the songwriter takes his often dense, orchestrated recordings and rewrites them anew each night, adding layers of fiddle, electric guitar, and glockenspiel to his vocals and whistling.

Click here for a Q&A session with Mr. Bird about The Mysterious Production of Eggs.

1. 2. Sovay 3. A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left  [mp3] 4. Fake Palindromes 5. Measuring Cups 6. Banking on a Myth 7. Masterfade 8. Opposite Day 9. Skin Is, My 10. The Naming of Things 11. MX Missiles 12. 13. Tables and Chairs 14. The Happy Birthday Song

[Mar 18, 2005]		Pitchfork Track Review of “Fake Palindromes”: “This short track from Andrew Bird's latest LP rocks, but not in any conventional sense: There are no distorted guitars or cracking snares; instead, it explodes with orgasmic violins and rides a rhythm comprised of nothing more than a thumping, accelerating, heartbeat-like pattern and some tambourine. The drums fit nicely with those violins between verses, and give the song the feeling of perpetual motion, as if it's gathering steam and venting pressure and doing so more violently with each cycle. “Bird develops the lyrics and melody in similar ways, drawing out lines with repetition and little fall-off phrases that stoke the song's emotional weight-- check how he adds a little "shoulda died" to the end of the line, "Jesus don't you know that you coulda died." And even as the morbid imagery and non-sequiturs start to pile up, it's difficult to imagine a line like, "She says I like long walks and sci-fi movies" leading to: "Some lonely night we can get together/ And I'm gonna tie your wrists with leather/ And drill a tiny hole into your head". In the end, the violins and drums explode once more, but the song comes to a staggeringly abrupt halt, snuffing itself out as soon as the story is told. I'm not sure if there's a name for the type of music Bird is making, but whatever it is, it's beautiful and new and I love it.”
[Apr 6, 2005]		Click here for Pitchfork Live Review
[Mar 11, 2005]		Click here for Pitchfork Full Album Review
[Feb 5, 2005]		New York Times: “It's got some of Arcade Fire's orchestral-rock charm, but without the big production and the angst - and a lot more whistling and songs about science”
[Feb 5, 2005]		Entertainment Weekly: “Versed in a wealth of forms (from swing to Appalachian folk) and instruments (from the violin to the glockenspiel), Bird offers a shapely, mesmerizing CD as inventive as it is rooted in musical lore. “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left,” for example, lays country whimsy and a touch of rock on a lush bed of strings. It’s just one of the highlights of Eggs, which peaks again and again, each time distinctly astounding or just plain beautiful.”
[2005]		Amazon.com: “His beginnings as a violinist long behind him, Chicago-born Andrew Bird has been sculpting ever more complex and convincing musical worlds since his first album in 1997. On his fifth release, Bird offers up no answers to the mysteries in the world around us, but does take on the thornier elements with poetic verve. The instrumentation is bracingly inventive, but never for mere shenanigans or showmanship. The songs are each a perfectly formed vignette. And he's a world class whistler; not the loud summoning blast, but the supple and nuanced vibrato-laced melodicism of a master. There is no shortage of utterly riveting songs here. They work their magic on their own believable terms, without a hint of cloying nostalgia or riff-fueled seduction.”
[Feb 5, 2005]		Billboard: “The CD book to ‘Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs’ pairs Andrew Bird's absorbing lyrics with hilariously warped cartoon illustrations, all in tempo with his brand of prodigal chamber pop. A violinist by trade, a singer/songwriter by nature, Bird's history of incisive, witty albums extends from ‘The Swimming Hour’ and 2002's brilliant ‘Weather Systems’ to this new effort, his most satisfying and fun release yet. Taking all the best parts of Jeff Buckley, Devandra Barnhart and Rufus Wainwright, Bird can be noisy, charming, frivolous, haunting and playful all at once, with each song an adventure and, as the title implies, a mystery. As compulsive as he is obsessive, Bird's attention to detail in ‘Production of Eggs’ assembles all his finest gifts into one breathtaking basket.”