Investigating the Strange, High Stakes of Love

Are You Serious isn’t Andrew Bird’s first release since 2012’s Break It Yourself. In between, there were the EPs Hands of Glory and I Want to See Pulaski at Night, a collection of Handsome Family covers and the instrumental experiment “Echolocations: Canyon.”

The new album is, however, his first official full-length collection of originals since marrying and having a child, and as such, fans and critics can’t help but mine it for clues about the eccentric, sharp-minded virtuoso’s new domesticity.

Those are there, but in quirky Andrew Bird fashion – they’re revealed sideways and cloaked in wordplay (as on the slinky, tango-ish title track, which hits the rhyme trifecta of “obtuse/abstruse/noose.”)

Beyond that, “Left Handed Kisses,” a perfectly moderated push-pull argument duet with Fiona Apple, is a love song that distrusts love songs. “Roma Fade,” with propulsive rhythm and cascades of gypsy violin, investigates the borderline-creepy blurring of boundaries that comes with love: “If she sees you it changes you/ rearranges your molecules.”

The bright, bouncy strings and Afropop rhythm of “The New St. Jude” stand in counterpoint to its fatalistic lyrics (and invocation of the patron saint of lost causes)

I keep moving through my days as if I’d never met her
but ever since I gave up hope, I’ve been feeling so much better

“St. Jude” is one of the more upbeat songs on Are You Serious, beyond “Roma Fade” and the opener and lead single “Capsized” — the latter a simmering rocker toughened up by Blake Mills’ guitar. Indeed, the album is made up of subtly complex stuff — low-toned whistling, expertly layered harmonies, and plucked strings.

The tender closing track, “Bellevue,” is as warm and gently melodic as “Capsized” is dark and tense. It also offers some of the most plainspoken lyrics on the album, and the most unmistakably romantic and, well, happy. It’s a point-counterpoint from a meticulous craftsman, considering the heightened emotional stakes of a shared life.