Andrew Bird

I Want To See Pulaski At Night

Grimsey Records

It’s been funny reading a few reviews of this, the latest Andrew Bird EP. People seem to be highlighting the (nearly) title track (Pulaski At Night) as the standout, the only song here with vocals – possibly, depending on your definition, the only song. This has enabled a bunch of writers to bemoan this EP as being a swollen single, the instrumental tracks bookending the “single” are written off as fodder, flotsam.

I don’t feel that way at all – in fact I’d almost want to tell you that it’s a shame that the Pulaski track was included here because I’d like to take this in as an all-instrumental trip. The only reason I can’t quite feel good saying that is because, indeed, Pulaski At Night is a really good song. Bird has been on a roll the last couple of years, and this release stands up with last year’s album and EP. Okay, it’s not a million miles from those, it is in fact, in so many ways, more of the same, but that’s (more than) okay. There’s plenty of life left in his looping trick as he finds new ways to get the violin talking. Pulaski’s eight-minute closer, Ethio Invention no. 2 is almost a compendium of Bird’s best bits, the instrumental tricks and licks and flourishes that sit around and inside the best of his songs. The EP’s opener, Ethio Invention no. 1 creates a stirring mood as the journey unfolds.

So I don’t agree that the real gem here is the one track with words (though that’s every bit as strong as any of the best pieces you care to think of from Andrew Bird) I’ve enjoyed the swirls of instrumental colour and the evocations of post-modern gypsy jazz that dance around that track. And though I Want To See Pulaski At Night isn’t any sort of reinvention it’s not just a placeholder, it’s not a lazy stopgap, it’s an intriguing slice of leftovers and between-album thoughts. No doubt Bird will be back with a new full-lengther and another EP or two in 2014 – and this suggests that, as always, he’ll be worth following.