Quote Originally Posted by audiobill
Lord knows, I've tried the Andrew Bird several times & I just don't get it. Obviously you and ForeverAutumn get it. I've given up on it.
Yeah, funny about that. Bouncing around the net you can find quite a few of us that think this is a real landmark album, easily the best of the year and one of the best of the last few years. There's people pulling apart the lyrics and recasting them into their own images, just like we do on the classics of old. Bird is a very unassuming and underappreciated talent. You listen to the interviews like on NPR or read some of the transcripts and he just seems like another guy, someone you'd love to hang out with and drink a few beers and discuss life. Just a great guy. Even sounds a little shy and embarrassed at the attention he's getting. But a brilliant writer and performer. He did just about everything on that album. And he seems to soak up music styles like a sponge. I skipped the last album thinking that it was probably just more of the Swimming Hour, but now I know that it's completely different and I need to go back and pick it up. Some fans think it's better than this one. All depends on what you like most.

But there's a lot of people that just say "meh" too. It's not even listed in the top 100 Editor's picks at amazon for 2005. Or in the Uncut top 50. Or NME or Mojo. But did pretty well with many of the critics as evidenced by its high rating at metacritic. Top of my little pile of discs this year, but it took awhile before it really clicked fully with me too