Happy Monday, folks! We inch ever-closer to Moving Day (it’s next Thursday, the 26th, if you’re curious). I have completed the Purge of Books and Belongings. Mostly books. I owned a hell of a lot of books. But now I own about a bookcase less than I did before, so that’s progress. Here’s an Andrew Bird Playlist, because Clyde was listening to his stuff this weekend which means I started listening to him again this weekend which means I have Andrew Bird on the brain.

1. “Minor Stab”: Did you know Andrew Bird played in the band Squirrel Nut Zippers back in the mid- to late-90s? He did! And the album this song is from sounds just like a Squirrel Nut Zippers album. He even gets their singer, Katherine Whalen, to sing on one of the songs.
2. “Fake Palindromes”: A man. A plan. A canal. Panama.
3. “Imitosis”: I’m always amused/confused by the lyrical topics of Andrew Bird songs. Sometimes, they’re fairly straightforward love songs, while other times they’re about…um…cell division? Man, I don’t even know.
4. “Nomenclature”: And other times they’re all about how we name things? It’s eclectic, is what I’m getting at.
5. “Orpheo Looks Back”: Ostensibly about the tale of Orpheus from Greek myth looking back at his wife while escorting her out of the Underworld, the one thing Hades told him not to do. Always follow the rules in the Underworld, kids.
6. “Three White Horses”: Horses are oddly popular in music. I’m not just talking about country music or cowboy music, either. Dylan has a couple of songs about horses (mostly “All the TIred Horses” and “Pony”), as does Bruce Springsteen. Maybe they just all want to be cowboys?
7. “So Much Wine, Merry Christmas”: This whole list could have just been the Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of album, and I’d have been perfectly happy with that. I like this song in particular for that lead guitar break.
8. “Roma Fade”: If this doesn’t describe Julius Caesar’s haircut, then what even is the point of music?
9. “Sisyphus”: Ah, the story of Sisyphus! Forever rolling that rock up the hill, only to have it roll back down and have to start the whole process all over again. I think Sisyphus ought to have picked a better place to stop rolling, possibly a flat spot or one that’s got a little dip so the rock can roll back down the hill.
10. “Atomized”: I didn’t intend for this list to go in chronological order, but it did and it’s fine. Reducing everything to atoms, though? Yeah, that sounds like an Andrew Bird song.