The gods were upon me the day I came across a promotional copy of Andrew Bird and his Bowl of Fire's exceptional The Swimming Hour in 2001. It was a welcome surprise and I was immediately taken aback by its multiple personalities and styles. One minute I was consumed in early-20th century Americana and the next lost in a sonic flash of whistling gypsy-folk, calypso & violins. So inspired, I put it on the pedestal it deserved and placed it amidst first-rate company like White Blood Cells and Vespertine as one of the top five best albums of that year. Four years and two albums later, The Mysterious Production of Eggs doesn't find Mr. Bird straying too far from familiar territory, but he sounds as absolutely breathtaking as ever.

Eggs is Bird's sixth long player and debut for the Righteous Babe imprint (if you don't count the re-release of his last and equally-extraordinary album Weather Systems). Bird, now without the backing of band Bowl of Fire, struggled in the making of TMPOE while constructing it on his farm in northern Illinois and ended up scrapping it twice. Bird's inkling for Brian Wilson-like perfectionism with the recording sessions found him re-writing and re-arranging the songs 15 to 20 times each and with the help of engineer David Boucher (Randy Newman, Paul Westerberg), finally conquered the life-size undertaking. Thankfully, the result paid off with production value at top-notch and his arrangements more moving and inspired than ever.

Bird succeeds most with songs like, "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left" and "Banking on a Myth" which will remain lodged bouncing around in your head for days on end, and for the impeccable "Opposite Day," that just screams to be hummed along with. His sound is wholly unique and with the use of non-traditionalist instruments such as the violin, the glockenspiel, and even by whistling he creates an epic journey through Americana. Although Andrew Bird is on a completely different musical plane, his closest comparison might fall somewhere between Jeff Buckley and Ed Harcourt. Mr. Bird himself might even prefer something between African music and My Bloody Valentine. No matter where the association lies, long-time fans of the Bird will appreciate how welcoming Eggs sounds and for newcomers, it's a great place to start. Besides, he plays the freakin' glockenspiel people! An instument that most musicians wouldn't even attempt to spell.