My List: Andrew Bird

Midlake: "Young Bride"
"It's a catchy song with a great melody," says Bird of this track from The Trials of Van Occupanther, the Texas quintet's 2006 album. "It's nice to hear a band that's not referencing other rock bands. I wish more groups were this ambitious."

Cornelius: "Sensuous"
Bird first heard Keigo Oyamada -- who took his pseudonym from a Planet of the Apes chimp -- on Australian radio. "It caught my ear," he says of the Tokyo native's '06 disc, a blend of chilled-out beats and funky electronica. "It's minimal and repetitive in the best possible way."

Charley Patton: "Prayer of Death" [Listen]
"It sounds like he's saying, 'I'll meet you on that fatal shore,' " says Bird of the hazy refrain on the pioneering Delta bluesman's strangely upbeat 1929 tune. "You never know exactly what he's saying -- I like that."

Arthur Russell: "World of Echo"
"It's music from outer space," claims Bird of this Iowa-born cellist's 1986 album, an odd mix of classical, disco and pop. "Russell [who lost his battle with AIDS in 1992, at age forty] died way too young."