There’s an almost scary intimacy to the sound of The Mysterious Production of Eggs; Andrew Bird’s lilting, sonorous voice and masterful whistling swooping around multi-tracked and looped violin, plucked and bowed. Reverb used ever so slightly, drums mixed to be pillowy soft, the shimmering vibrato of a clean guitar. The opening lullaby “Sovay” and wiggly “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head To The Left” lull you into security before the explosive wordless chorus of “Fake Palindromes,” with its Bollywood gliding and chaotic drums, bursts through like the punchline unexpected. There are so many lovely moments like these throughout the album; “Opposite Day” and its reprise highlighting the playfully mischievous arrangements, “Skin Is, My” and “The Naming of Things” rocking hardest, and the double cinematic finale of “Tables And Chairs” and “The Happy Birthday Song.” It’s an endlessly relistenable album with secrets to discover each time. 

– Alex Riggs