Album: Andrew Bird, Break It Yourself (Bella Union)

Andrew Bird's characteristic lyrical blend of vagueness and verbosity is slightly reined in on Break It Yourself, though he juggles lightness and opacity as deftly as ever in songs like "Lazy Projector" and "Danse Carribe".

Fast, light and skittish, the blend of high, cuatro-register guitar and rhapsodic violin in tracks such as "Desperation Breeds" and "Give It Away" recalls the Penguin Cafe Orchestra in Caribbean mood, while "Orpheo Looks Back" is strung between Eastern string tonalities and folksy Western fiddling. But when it all comes together, with the sinuous, haunting grace of "Near Death Experience Experience" or the jaunty élan of "Danse Carribe", the results more than justify the sometimes obtuse methods.

DOWNLOAD THIS Near Death Experience Experience; Danse Carribe; Desperation Breeds; Give It Away