Au Revoir Simone – The Bird of Music (2007)

October 29, 2023

I’m sure there are many others out there just like me who have David Lynch to thank for including Au Revoir Simone’s music in Twin Peaks: The Return. Their “performances” were highlights of the somewhat dreary musical acts to appear in the returned TV show, and I made with haste to the very album from which those cuts originated. Unfortunately, I did not process this review with the same haste in which I visited the album initially lol.

I listened to The Bird Of Music twice back-to-back last night so the timing is now right for me to come here and declare how much I love this album and to implore you to listen to it if you are on the fence or just lost and stumbling across random music on the internet. I haven’t heard any other records by this three piece but The Bird Of Music is a beautiful piece of work, full of subtle pop music built on top of hypnotic, droning synthesiser work. Songs are dreamy; unfolding with a treacle-like pace and consistency, but held together by sweet, tender vocals that stop the music veering too far off into the wilderness.

If I had to pick standouts I would pick both “Lark” and “A Violent Yet Flammable World” only because these are the songs that made me fall in love with this thing in the first place.