Daily Dose: Andrew Bird, “Bloodless”

Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.

Andrew Bird is back with his first new music in over a year. Released today, Nov. 2, “Bloodless” is Bird’s honest, yet optimistic take on our current political climate.

The almost seven-minute epic is blues-y and dragging, and more heavily features a piano than Bird’s signature violin, though that’s certainly present. Bird begins by describing a situation in which we, as a society, are floating through life focusing on all of the wrong distractions, with those in power “profiting from your worry.” The track is pretty cleanly split into two halves, with each building to an optimistic call to action: “Don’t you worry about the wicked / Don’t you envy those who do wrong / And your innocence will be like the dawn / While the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.”

The single was released with an accompanying video, under which Bird wrote a statement on its meaning.

“We find ourselves in a cold civil war. Everyone is playing their part too well. Certain actors are reaping power and wealth from divisiveness. Echoes of the Spanish civil war when fascists and clergy win because they put up a united front against the individualistic and principled (yet scattered) left,” says Bird. “We can turn this ship around but we need to step back and be honest with ourselves about what’s happening while it’s still relatively bloodless.”

The video itself, directed by Matthew Daniel Siskin, is done in black-and-white and features Bird strolling through L.A. As he moves through the city, various worldly distractions are highlighted, such as people with their faces buried in cell phones and advertising non-essential products. At the same time, some of the city’s struggles are shown, such as homelessness and drug abuse.

Check out the video below, along with Andrew Bird and Dianogah’s 2007 Daytrotter Session, and revisit Paste’s 2016 feature on Bird here.