American indie rock artist Andrew Bird recently announced his newest album, Outside Problems, for a July 21st release this Friday. A follow-up to his acclaimed last LP Inside Problems, this next album is a collection of nine creative and unique musical endeavors that, according to a press release, “captures the sound of music in everyday life.”

In a similar manner to the creation process behind his environment-based Echolocations, Bird recorded the majority of Outside Problems outdoors, among the Ojai, California mountains and orange groves.

Outside Problems is a reflection on Bird’s career and on his future, and plants the seeds to much of the songs and ideas that fuel Inside Problems. In Bird’s own words, “There are two notable things about this album. One, none of these songs were recorded with the intent of making an album, I just happened to capture moments of melodic exploration over a period of time. You can hear themes from Inside Problems throughout the album, including on the song ‘Epilogue,’ just without concern for bridges and choruses and the band. I’m able to capture the sound of music in everyday life, a surprisingly hard thing to do. I was playing for the joy of it and to get these ideas out of my head. To hear them in a room. There is no room. Second, these pieces were recorded primarily outside in Ojai, CA. I’m no stranger to recording outside as with the Echolocations series. My plan was to record Inside Problems outside but the leaf-blowers made that difficult…Deep in the pandemic, far from the city and album campaigns and Instagram strategies, getting back to the original point of it all.”

Outside Problems’ track list is as follows:

01 Mancey

02 Epilogue

03 Festivus

04 What We Saw

05 Mormon House Party

06 Mo Teef

07 Heaven’s Boughs

08 Improvisation on a Familiar Theme

09 Tik Tok