Andrew Bird: The Mysterious Production Of Eggs (20th anniversary edition) [WEGAWAM]

Why you'll love it

Bird's own Wegawam label marks 20 years with a gatefold edition and reimagined artwork. The album holds a Metacritic score of 85, and Pitchfork placed it at No. 181 on its list of the best albums of the 2000s, with "Fake Palindromes" on its best songs of the decade.

This edition

• 20th anniversary edition
• Gatefold jacket with reimagined artwork
• Wegawam pressing (cat# WEG010V1)

About the album

Andrew Bird made The Mysterious Production of Eggs after leaving Chicago for a barn in rural Illinois, which is about as good a setting as any for a violinist who whistles better than most people sing. He produced it with David Boucher, played violin, guitar and glockenspiel himself, and brought in Kevin O'Donnell on drums and Nora O'Connor on backing vocals. Righteous Babe put it out in February 2005, and the looping, layering style he had been working out on stage came into focus here.

The songs are about childhood, science and the curious business of naming things. "Fake Palindromes" is a pizzicato rocker with a sting in it; "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left" wraps a wry lyric in a lovely melody; "Sovay" and "Tables and Chairs" are about as pretty as indie rock got that decade. By 2008 it had sold 80,000 copies in the US, mostly, we suspect, to people who then bought a violin and quietly put it back in the cupboard.

Tracklist

Listen

On Wegawam (cat# WEG010V1), a reissue of the 2005 album.