Goodbye is the amazing third album from The Czars; a record endowed with well-crafted songs, incredible musicianship and, of course, John Grant’s beautiful vocals. “Long distinguished by John Grant’s superlative baritone… their third album reeks of wistful, melancholic class… as meticulous and complete-sounding as the best works by Mercury Rev or The Flaming Lips”

terrific. a little bit elbow, a little bit pulp, a little bit the blue nile, a little bit the who, even. i keep saying that there’s so many people out there doing interesting stuff. i wish we could play more of it

Best of all is ‘Valentine’, which Greg correctly pinpoints as “sounding just like Donna Summer”. A full-on Studio 54 pounder, it would surely cause a dancefloor frenzy were Becky’s house to have a dancefloor in the kitchen.

Versed in a wealth of forms (from swing to Appalachian folk) and instruments (from the violin to the glockenspiel), Bird offers a shapely, mesmerizing CD as inventive as it is rooted in musical lore. “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left,” for example, lays country whimsy and a touch of rock on a lush bed of strings. It’s just one of the highlights of Eggs, which peaks again and again, each time distinctly astounding or just plain beautiful.