God only knows how many “Oh No” puns I could use here, but I’m taking the halfway cheap way out and only alluding to their ranks.
“Oh No” is the first track off Bird’s Noble Beast, which is due out January 29th on Fat Possum. Each record of his seems to have very strong production ties which separate his great-but-occasionally-similar albums from ever sounding repetitive. Looks like this new one is going to carry on that trend; “Oh No” sounds terrific.
Stream “Oh No” over at Pitchfork
“Oh No” is also the song Andrew focused on in his portion of the New York Times songwriting blog Measure for Measure. You can read all about it by going to his article “Words Will Tell” or get a highlighted selection after the jump.
A selection of “Words Will Tell”, written by Andrew Bird for the New York Times.
The song in question is called (for now) “Oh No.” It began, as do most of my songs, with a sound. It could be a creaking door or a delivery truck or the sound of multiple stereos wafting out of bedroom windows. For the last four years the same dancehall beat has been has been rattling the foundation of my Chicago apartment. When I stay at my farm, sparrows, coyotes, chickens and frogs find their way into my songs as well.
In the instance of this song I was on a flight from New York back to Chicago and a young mother and her 3-year-old son sat in front of me and it was looking to be the classic scenario of the child screaming bloody murder. However, I was struck by the mournfulness of this kid’s wail. He just kept crying “oh no” in a way that only someone who is certain of their demise could. Pure terror. Completely inconsolable. It was more moving than annoying.
So when I got home I picked up my guitar and tried to capture the slowly descending arc of that kid’s cry. It fit nicely over a violin loop that I had been toying with which moves from C-major to A-major.”
