Andrew Bird - HARK! (LP, Gatefold)

Facts Vinyl LP pressing. 2020 holiday release. Building upon last year's EP of the same name, the 13-song set delivers freshly recorded originals - including "Christmas in April," perhaps the first COVID-inspired holiday song, which Andrew wrote during lockdown plus holiday classics and wintertime reimaginings of seasonally ambiguous deep cuts by John Cale, John Prine and Handsome Family. For the first time since 2002's Ballad of the Red Shoes, Andrew Bird collaborated on the album artwork with his mother, who was also the inspiration for Hark!'s exquisite, solo violin arrangement of "Mille Cherubini in Coro" - her favorite piece from the Pavarotti and Vienna Boys Choir performance she and Andrew would always listen to when he was a child.