Andrew Bird isn’t exactly known for singing about love—not unless it involves leather and formaldehyde, at least—but you can only be a happily married person with a young son for so long before the temptation to sentiment begins to creep its way in. And so now we have “Left Handed Kisses,” the second single from Bird’s forthcoming twelfth record, Are You Serious.
Of course, this being Andrew Bird, it ain’t a straightforward roses-are-red situation. “My inclination was to write a song about why I can’t write a simple love song,” Bird says in a statement. “The song began as an internal dialogue.” As he worked it out, it became an external dialogue, too, with Fiona Apple lending her voice to Bird’s romantic impulse. “I don’t believe everything happens for a reason,” Bird begins. “To us romantics out here, that amounts to high treason,” Apple counters. As the song builds, the two begin to circle one another, Apple becoming more pointed in her responses. “The point your song here misses is, if you really love me, you’d risk more than a few fifty-cent words in your backhanded love song,” she sings.
You can give “Left Handed Kisses” a listen below.
Are You Serious is out April 1 via Loma Vista.
