Andrew Bird
Inside Problems
Loma Vista
2022
Listening to Andrew Bird talk about Inside Problems, one feels that there are so many levels to him that one can never be sure where he is at any particular time. He’s a whistler, always has been. Yet certain locations seem to be more appropriate than others. Standing at a men’s room urinal, whistling, Bird, was confronted by a man demanding to know, “What are you so happy about?” His response was honest to a fault, “I’m actually quite miserable, if you must know.” Just beneath the surface, Bird was dealing with so much that has always thrown him for a loop, leading to the notion of “inside problems” inhabiting his latest release.
Despite the wealth of things gnawing at him, Bird can come up with some of the most intriguing music to lay against his neuroses. He classifies himself as something of a passable guitarist. Still, the violin is the instrument where he shines, yet the opening notes of “Underlands” are on the six-string, “I’m very skilled and expert at one, and with the other, I’m not very musical—I’m very ham-fisted on guitar. I’m on the couch with a guitar, and I’m like Jonathan Richman, and in the studio, it’s more like Yo-Yo Ma.” Which, in many ways, is another part of the same equation. The lyrics to “Underlands” establish that we are dealing with an inner world that is incredibly hard to tame, “Stars don’t owe you anything/ Don’t give a damn about your nation/ Or feel the slightest obligation.”
Bird spent a lot of time grappling with his demons during the pandemic. In the past, he’d been able to keep things at bay, yet now things were able to boil to the surface. “During the pandemic, there was more room for them to come out and wreak havoc.” Musically this is illustrated on “Fixed Positions”, where Bird’s whistling is transformed into a string-driven attack questioning everything. “But if we stay here long enough, I feel we’ll always be this way/ And when you’re screwing up your face oh, won’t it always stay that way?” Questions without answers, isn’t that always how it is?
Giving lyrical nods to everyone from Icarus to Sisyphus, Bird takes on more demons on “Make A Picture.” “Oh, I don’t wanna ride on your shoulders and put you in the hospital/ I just wanna roll away boulders that they said wasn’t possible/ Don’t you know that I’m an irrepressible optimist working with a fatal flaw?” Part of that irrepressibility lies in music, including plucked violin notes, staccato guitar riffs, and epic backing vocals that take the song far and wide in less than three and a half minutes.
There’s a genuinely deceptive simplicity to Bird’s songs. The depths, however, are incredible. “Atomized” takes on Joan Didion (herself highlighted in “Lone Didion”), updating W. B. Yates. Going even further, Bird adds another layer, bringing into focus the notion that today not only society is being atomized, but the self is also being broken apart and scattered to the winds. “They’re gonna try to get a rise to unseat you/ They’ll demagnetize your poles/ And you know they’re gonna try to delete you/ So now you’re atomized, unwhole.”
Andrew Bird once again confirms that he is one of the most original artists in the music business. He finds a way to deal with complex topics while also attempting to simplify them, then sets them to incredibly attractive arrangements. Inside Problems have never sounded quite so appealing.
Inside Problems is out now (3 June 2022)