Commencing with a hymn-like cover of
John Cale
's "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 -- it's like a big, awkward indie-folk hug.
Bird
contributed a pair of lovely originals to the initial EP, "Alabaster" and "Night's Falling," but it's the album's third self-penned offering, "Christmas in April," that served as the impetus for
Hark
's 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.
adds some sonic levity to
John Prine
's "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,
has crafted an extremely likeable holiday record that's sad, sweet, sincere, occasionally silly, and reliably idiosyncratic. ~ James Christopher Monger