Commencing with a hymn-like cover of John Cales Andalucia -- the always inventive Suzuki method-trained violinist would never deign to make a traditional Christmas album -- Hark! sees Andrew Bird embracing both the joy and the wistfulness of the holiday. Essentially a full-length version of the 2019 EP of the same name, the homespun and heartfelt 13-song set of standards, covers, and originals would make an excellent soundtrack for a yuletide Wes Anderson film -- its like a big, awkward indie-folk hug. Bird contributed a pair of lovely originals to the initial EP, Alabaster and Nights Falling, but its the albums third self-penned offering, Christmas in April, that served as the impetus for Harks expansion. Written and recorded in the early days of the 2020 pandemic, the lonesome waltz paints a picture of uncertainty (Oh, my love, when will you know if we can meet under the mistletoe) and longing (Fits and starts, upset applecarts, conspiring to keep us apart), but does so with the sanguinity of the season. Bird adds some sonic levity to John Prines Souvenirs, another song that laments the passing of time, by dispensing with the folksy cadence of the original and administering a bit of 70s country swagger. He goes full cocktail hour on delightful renderings of the Vince Guaraldi Trio classics Christmas Is Coming and Skating, adding a bit of Quintette du Hot Club de France-inspired swing to the proceedings, and his whistled take on the carol O Holy Night is both charmingly quirky and surprisingly moving. In allowing the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future to converge, Bird has crafted an extremely likeable holiday record thats sad, sweet, sincere, occasionally silly, and reliably idiosyncratic. ~ James Christopher Monger

Rovi