Sunday Shuffle #156

I stayed up late to watch the end of the Angels/Yankees ALCS game last night and the wrong team won. What can you do? Today's sports highlights include the Giants/Saints at noon and the Bears/Falcons tonight. Looking forward to watching those games and to seeing what songs pop up right now...

1. Modesto Is Not That Sweet/The Hold Steady (20)

2. Outta My Head/M. Ward (14)

3. Teeth/Bowerbirds (4)

4. Monster Closet/Two Hours Traffic (6)

5. The Supine/Andrew Bird (13)

6. Backstabbin'/Sloan (9)

7. Come Crash/A.C. Newman (7)

8. Nothing Can Hurt You Now/Glossary (9)

9. Alone (Alternate Version)/Wilco (10)

10. Hard Talkin/Le Switch (3)

My Music Year #2

When I think of Andrew Bird, I think of plucked strings, violin, and whistling. On the first track of Noble Beast ("Oh No"), you get all three and you also get melody, another Birdian trait. You also get some intriguing lyrics - in this case, "Arm in arm we are the hopeless sociopaths." Indeed. That opener also give you a pretty good indication of what you're going to get on the whole record, which is not to say that every song sounds the same. Rather, these elements are his strengths and he weaves them throughout time and mood shifts in his songs; one example is "Anonanimal," which starts out with the sweeping strings and starts layering in sounds before opening up into a rockier style of drums and guitar. "Masterswarm" dissolves into video game-like blips and clicks after starting with an introductory passage followed by a lightly bouncing rhythm accompanying the violin. There is also the "pop hit" of "Fitz and the Dizzyspells."

I admire Bird quite a bit and I enjoy this album (and his previous one, Armchair Apocrypha) when I listen to them but I don't always reach for them. I don't often have his songs running through my head either, though they have a bit more after listening to this album in preparation for this post. If you like music that can make you think while also entertaining, this album is for you.

Sunday Shuffle #148

My posting plan went awry this week, which isn't too surprising. School started on Wednesday and I had meetings on Tuesday and other things going on. This week I start my third semester back at college and have my first English class since 1994. It will be interesting. I do have some ideas for posts but we'll see what happens.

1. Magic Door/Elk City (9)

2. Army Bound/Ted Leo (9)

3. Isn't Life Strange?/The Clientele (13)

4. Robbers/Cold War Kids (11)

5. Effigy/Andrew Bird (7)

6. The Girl/Dr. Dog (10)

7. Simple X/Andrew Bird (9)

8. Bunny Ain't No Kind Of Rider/Of Montreal (7)

9. Help Help/Mates of State (7)

10. For The Price Of A Cup Of Tea/Belle and Sebastian (16)