Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.

For me, Andrew Bird is one of those artists who has never put out a bad album. It seems like he’s comfortably in his own element every single time — even as he explores new instruments and influences album by album. He never goes too far beyond his own natural musical inclinations. Noble Beast is still considered one of his banner LPs, and more than 10 years later he still plays “Tenuousness” pretty regularly on his set lists.

Listening back to “Tenuousness” I’m reminded that Bird has made a living doing things that are slightly off center. His melodies land offbeat. He uses whistling and humming, not as vocal interludes, but as instrumental accompaniment. And for his primary riffs, he replaces the guitar with pizzicato plucking on violin. There have been imitations over the years, but to this day there’s still no one else like Andrew Bird.

“Here's where things start getting weird.”