''Break It Yourself'' is the sixth solo studio album by the American singer-songwriter

Andrew Bird Andrew Wegman Bird (born July 11, 1973) is an American indie rock multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Since 1996, he has released 16 studio albums, as well as several live albums and EPs, spanning various genres including swing musi ...

, released on March 5, 2012, through Mom+Pop records in the US and

Bella Union Bella Union is a British independent record label founded in 1997 by Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. It is now run solely by Raymonde. History After releasing records with 4AD for a large part of their career, Cocteau Twin ...

in the UK. The track "Lusitania" features a duet with

St. Vincent Saint Vincent may refer to: People Saints * Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), a.k.a. Vincent the Deacon, deacon and martyr * Saint Vincenca, 3rd century Roman martyress, whose relics are in Blato, Croatia * Vincent, Orontius, and Victor (died 305 ...

Critical reception

The album was well received by critics: according to

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the album has received an average review score of 80/100, based on 33 reviews. The album debuted on the ''Billboard'' 200 at No. 10, which is Bird's first top 10 entry in the chart, selling 30,000 copies in the first week.

Track listing

Other appearances

* Versions of "Danse Caribe", "Eyeoneye", and "Sifters" appear on '' Fingerlings 4''. They are titled "Danse Carribe", "Oh Baltimore", and "The Sifters" respectively. * A slower version of "Orpheo Looks Back" (called "Orpheo") appears on '' Hands of Glory.''

Personnel

Band * Andrew Bird – violin, guitar, vocals, whistling * Martin Dosh – drums *

Jeremy Ylvisaker Jeremy Ylvisaker is a multi-instrumentalist from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a member of the indie rock bands Alpha Consumer and The Cloak Ox. Career He is a member of Alpha Consumer along with Michael Lewis and JT Bates. The band has release ...

– guitar, keyboards, background vocals * Mike Lewis – bass, tenor saxophone, background vocals Additional musicians * J. T. Bates – drums on "Danse Caribe" * Annie Clark (St. Vincent) – vocals on "Lusitania", courtesy of

4AD 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name Axis Records by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD after the release of th ...

Nora O'Connor Nora O’Connor (born April 2, 1968) is an American, Chicago-based musician. Though primarily known for her vocals, O'Connor also plays guitar and bass. For much of 2013, O'Connor toured internationally as a singer in Iron and Wine. She also reco ...

- vocal harmonies on "Give It Away", "Lazy Projector", "Near Death Experience Experience", "Fatal Shore" * Simone White – vocal harmony on "Desperation Breeds" * Wendy Lewis – cooking, moral support

Charts

References

{{Authority control Andrew Bird albums 2012 albums Mom + Pop Music albums