Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire-Core and Rind

Oh, Andrew Bird, we know you're a brillant musician. We know your incorporation of jazz and country (gasp) and indie. We know your artistic and creative expressions. We know your latest album, The Mysterious Production of Eggs is highly praised and, we think, really, really good (and streamable here). But did we realize your pop rock genius back then, when you still had that "Bowl of Fire" attached to your name and female backing vocals, when you came up with The Swimming Hour? Did we realize how catchy, wonderful, and perfect your song could be?

Perhaps, we saw the reviews. The hipsters shunning the album because you "sold-out". Because you dared to create choruses and catchy riffs. Because you flipped to the commercial side and made your music just that much easier to take in. Well. They're not doing that anymore. They have no right to do that anymore.

We, however, have every right to post this track. Opening with a tingle of continous, plesable, great guitar lines that's an instant catchy mark, with the vocals jumping in a minute later, with all the clever, "bite me" lyrics you adore. And those instrumentals, and little things, the keyboard and the horns and the recorder and the banjo and whatever else...fusing all these different genres without being, well, boring. And the vocals as strong as ever, and these female backing vocals making it oh so perfect. We don't need to know your mind to love your songs.