We're only a month away from @'s new album Autosmile. The Philly hyperfolk duo wowed us with the early singles, and #3 is splendid too. "Bird," out today, is the kind of folk song that can rearrange your brain. It's sparse yet intricate, leveling out into gorgeous simplicity at just the right times and never giving up its inherent eeriness. "I'm at the mercy of God," Stone Filipczak intones.
An explainer from Filipczak:
This song was inspired by dead baby birds that kept appearing on my deck. It was written on a bike ride through Druid Hill Park in Baltimore. The lyrics have lots of puns which hopefully offset their hopelessness.
Caity Arthur directed the "Bird" video, and she has a statement too:
"Give me warmth, give me death, whatever I don’t want it
I walked out on the deck to put a hole in my head"
These lines from "Bird" stuck out to me first; jarring, casual, something I can see myself saying. I liked the song’s mix of funniness and macabre. The week I started planning this video, a beautiful black and white bird died on my own balcony. Within a couple days, it was hollowed and eaten away by flies and ants. I heard the song, then saw the bird on my own balcony with the video taking shape in my mind; all a strange and dreamlike sequence. I am an advocate of finding beauty in sadness and dark things, instead of staying away from them.
"Decomposed baby bird come to rest in my doorway
Should have given him a funeral on the first day."
Watch below.
Autosmile is out 10/16 on 4AD. Pre-order it here.
