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Andrew Bird : Noble Beast :: Review

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With all of the leaks (intentional and Youtube) of material from ‘Noble Beast’ you might have assumed that the album had been released prior to January 20, 2008.   Bird has a right to be proud of these new songs, and thankful for the free promotion that he has received courtesy of Youtube.   The leaked tracks from ‘Noble Beast’ display the strongest and most mature songwriting of his career.

A great majority of the tracks that have been leaked on Youtube arrive early on in the album and present the traditional side of Bird.  His ever present whistling is a welcome return and can be found in first track, “Oh No.”  “Oh No” is an airy piece of percussive pop that feels naturalistic.  The electronics from ‘Armchair Apocrypha’ are gone and there is a cool fuzz guitar lurking in the background on this track.  This album seems to be more varied rhythmically than his past efforts with propulsive tracks like  “Masterswarm” and “Effigy” feeding off the joy of the instrumentation and melody.

“Nomenclature” seems to end side 1, and is the shortest of the songs but seems weighted down by too much going on.  “Ouo” is a throwaway piece that introduces the more experimental Bird material “Not A Robot, But A Ghost.”  Coming on like a frenzied dream of string and industrial beats, Bird steps his toe in the sound of his previous album.  Bird provides he is capable of distorting his sound on this track but is also guilty of a little self-indulgence as well.  “Anonanimal” picks up the slack with its and driving guitar riffs and handclaps before leading into the swooning “Natural Disaster”.

‘Noble Beast’ is a satisfying listen despite the excessive musicality of  some of the songs but the album’s conclusion is a bit drawn out.  Whereas “Privateers” would have been a good closer, “Souverian” feels a bit tacked on and dragged out.  ‘Noble Beast’ is a very solid album, and it will be interesting to see how these songs sound on the road.