Written and produced by Jamie Paige Performed by Kasane Teto & OK Glass On Constant Companions (Deluxe Edition) (2025)
So-- FUCK!
So unsure, before it's even heard
Never confident in a single word
This bird, expert in the absurd
1 Number one in life that has been deferred
2 It hurts this relentless introvert
But inversion only serves to put deserving on the mind
So I keep my time, so far out of line
3 And when the day turns night I can't help but--
Cry so loudly, I slant devoutly
Tell me what about me is built so wrong?
There's so much passion, but more I'm lacking
I wish that I could
4
c- c- c- c- c- c- c- caw-
But I falter on the forethought
I keep on running like a chicken with its head cut off
Achromatic twisted aeronaut
5 A BIRDBRAIN, baby, I don't know when I'm supposed to stop
Hit me with the flap down, crash into the soft ground (foul!)
6 Ain't no fellow feathers falling for a freak (so weak!)
So put my neck up on the chopping block
A BIRDBRAIN, baby, I don't think my head is coming off
7 Baby, I don't know when I'm supposed to stop
Baby, I don't know when I'm supposed to stop!
So-- Shit!
So unsure, before it's even heard
I can't toe the border with my eyes so blurred
This bird, constantly overturned
Ten-time unwitting champion of being spurned
(So when you go, I won't cry)
'Cause even through it hurts, it's the thousandth time
Don't stay, 'cause I don't even know what I'd do anyway
I'm so damn selfish, I can't live like this
So be my witness, I won't back down
I'll play the hero, divide the zero
8 So I wanna hear you- s- say- something?
And I falter as an afterthought
I keep on running like a chicken with its head cut off
Apathetic aching argonaut
A BIRDBRAIN, baby, I don't know when I'm supposed to stop
Hit me with the flap down, crashing with a loud sound (foul!)
Apoplectic and pathetic as can be (not me!)
I put my neck up on the chopping block
A BIRDBRAIN, baby, I don't think my head is coming off
Baby, I don't know when I'm supposed to stop
Can you tell me if you think that I should stop?
Baby, I don't know when I'm supposed to stop!
Why did it sound like that?!
Is it all for a show?
In the golden hour you seem to know no fear
Is it really true?
That a bird like me could never think like you?
Is it all in my head?
Is my ignorance just manufactured dread?
When I've naught but my pride
Can you take a look and
SAY YOU LIKE WHAT i'VE GOT INSIDE?
9
OHHH! AAAAAHHHH! OGH! MY PEEEEENIIIIIIIIISS!!! AAAAAAAAAHH--
10
So I falter on the second thought
I keep on running like a chicken with its head cut off
Counterfeited crooning cosmonaut
A BIRDBRAIN, baby, I don't know when I'm supposed to stop
Hit me with the flap down, mired in the earthbound
11 (foul!)
Billous baby braying babble bent her beak (what a freak!)
I put my neck upon the chopping block
A BIRDBRAIN, baby, I don't think my head is coming off
Baby, I don't know when I'm supposed to stop
Baby, tell me if you think that I should stop?
Baby, I don't know when I'm supposed to stop!
Baby-- FUCK.
Commentary and Reccommendations
It was honestly wild to see what happened when BIRDBRAIN came out. It's one of those rare times when an artist you really like is putting out some of their best work and then they're hyping up their next song as something that's gonna be a huge hit and then it becomes a huge hit. I found Jamie Paige around early last year, through a person reccommending a FLAVOR FOLEY song to me, and I looked into each of the artists in the group. This was after Jamie Paige put out her latest album, Constant Companions, which will appear later in the playlist. I became a fan through tracks in that album, particularly Machine Love, which BIRDBRAIN starts with an allusion to. By the time the summer came around, it had been a bit of time since its
12 last work came out, BIRDBRAIN was the next big release after the hiatus and it BLEW UP.
there were so many covers, so many references to it, so many new people breaking on to the vocaloid scene after it came out, it was defintely a moment where it felt like Teto and Vocal Synths "broke containment". Machine Love, with its youtube video referencing a bunch of different vocaloid songs, did that too (myself included), but Birdbrain eclipsed it by like tenfold.
And it's not hard to see why, with its Taylor Swift-inspired instrumentals, really catchy chorus, and the music video having a cute little dance which featured Teto in a bunch of real life locations, it was primed to go big during the summer of 2025. The lyrics also being relatable with references to not being able to keep up with everyone else, inability to connect with people, scatterbrained-ness, and general feeling of not being normal also added some depth and relatability, both of which are pretty common in Jamie Paige's songwriting.
13 Personally I really like BIRDBRAIN. I like a bunch of other JamieP songs more than it, but it's a really good song to get into the artist with. It's such an earworm.
Reccommendations
Subliminal By They Might Be Giants On John Henry (1994) One of my favorite fun facts about this song is that the accordion OK Glass uses in the solo is the one he bought from John Linell from They Might Be Giants. I picked a TMBG song that showcases the accordion to try and hear the comparison.
When Spring Comes By Jamie Paige On People Posture Play Pretend (2022) Birdbrain is basically a remix of this.
THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO LIVE By OK GLASS (2025) One of OK Glass' originals! Also uses that accordion. This track also follows in that TMBG inspiration in the sense that the lyrics are just vague enough that they could be applied to a lot of different things (but I read them specifically about trans people)
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