Photo by David Black

Today, Andrew Bird shared his first musical release of 2022, a new song titled “Atomized.” The track serves as an update to a 1967 writing by Joan Didion who penned that she “had dealt directly and flatly with the evidence of atomization, the proof that things fall apart.”

On the song Bird sings, “Start making your apologies, blaming technology/ They’re gonna try to get a rise to unseat you, they’ll demagnetize your poles and you know they’re gonna try to delete you/ Here’s what I say to them: things fall apart.” In a release, Bird went into greater detail about the meaning behind his lyrics. “Didion was updating W.B. Yeats for the fractious 60s,” Andrew Bird observed in the release. “This song takes it to the pixelated present where it’s not just society that is getting atomized but the self that is being broken apart and scattered.” 

Along with the release of the song, Bird shared an accompanying music video which was directed by Matthew Daniel Siskin. In the video Bird finds himself split between light and dark, both mentally and physically. The song was recorded by Bird with his four-piece band comprised of bassist Alan Hampton, drummer Abe Rounds and guitarist and producer Mike Viola. The song features Bird’s classic lyrical musings, plucked violins and dapper style.

This summer, Andrew Bird will debut the song live on his co-headline “Outside Problems” tour with Iron & Wine, which will make stops at iconic American theaters including Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Colorado’s Red Rocks, New York City’s Pier 17 and more. Find tickets to the tour here.

Listen to “Atomized” below: