Record Label: Beans on Toast Music
Genre: Singer/Songwriter
Buy on Amazon.com

And now for something kinda different, in the form of the kitschily named Beans on Toast and their new disc, “A Bird in the Hand.”

“Another Year” is perhaps the most appropriate song right now in this infant year, with the composition urging on the listener to seize on all the possibilities in eloquent prose. “Magic” is a dulcet tone poem about the narrator witnessing his future child being heard on an ultrasound machine—then something goes wrong, but the singer never loses his sense of wonder even amid the turbulence. Touching songwriting like this doesn’t come around too often.

“1980s Sagittarius” is a fun little romp that is both charming and uplifting at the same time.

I still don’t quite know what to do with “Bamboo Toothbrush,” an environmentalist fable about disposable plastic, so my advice is to skip that one and move on to the cheery “Watching the World Go By,” with its advice to keep a smile on your face on a day-by-day basis.

Closer “Miss You Like Crazy” is a fine leavetaking, capped with the sounds of a baby’s happy cries—perhaps the very same child who was sung about in “Magic.”

The album is a bit uneven, but the fun quirkiness and some genuine winners outweigh the missteps.

Notable tracks: Magic, Miss You Like Crazy, Another Year, 1980s Sagittarius
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