Andrew Bird Noble Beast CD

Additional Tracks; Deluxe Edition

Personnel: Andrew Bird (vocals, whistling, guitar, violin); Jeremy Ylvisaker (guitar, organ, bass guitar); Emil Svanängen, Emil Savangen (flute, background vocals); Mike Lewis , Mike Lewis (clarinet); Martin Dosh (keyboards, percussion, loops); Todd Sickafoose (double bass); David Lindvall (bass guitar); Andreas Werliin (drums); Glenn Kotche (percussion); Kelly Hogan (background vocals); Ben Martin, Tony Crow.
Audio Mixers: David Boucher; Mark Greenberg; Mark Nevers; Todd Sickafoose.
Audio Remasterers: Jeff Lipton; Maria Rice.
Recording information: Beech House, Nashville, TN; Berkeley Street Studios, Santa Monica, CA; Crazy Beast Studios, Minneapolis, MN; Dosh's Basement; Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN; Little Skin Hang Out, Stockholm, Sweden; The Barn; The Loft, Chicago, IL; Wall To Wall Recordings, Chicago, IL.
Editors: John Kelton; Todd Sickafoose.
Illustrator: Diana Sudyka.
Arranger: Andrew Bird.
A more organic and subdued outing than its predecessor, ARMCHAIR APOCRYPHA, 2009's NOBLE BEAST finds singer/violinist/guitarist Andrew Bird further refining his elegant, erudite brand of indie-pop. From the breezy, lilting opener "Oh No" to the wistful, strings-only "On Ho," the Chicagoan performer wanders purposefully through his own strange musical landscape, stopping off for fascinating moments such as the chiming "Fitz & Dizzyspells" and the percussive "Not a Robot, But a Ghost." Although Bird's lit-major lyrics and dynamic, classically-minded arrangements may scare off listeners looking for more immediate thrills, those who allow BEAST to work its magic will be happily entranced by its considerable charms.
Released in 2007, Armchair Apocrypha proved that hyper-literate singer/songwriter, genre-bending violin player, and peerless whistler Andrew Bird had found the perfect middle ground between his increasingly austere solo sets and the full-band grandeur of his days with the Bowl of Fire, a strategy he repeats with similar results on Noble Beast, his fifth full-length solo offering and second collection for the Mississippi-based Fat Possum label. Bird, a classically trained violinist since the age of four, has skillfully integrated nearly everything with strings on it into his repertoire since his conversion from the Weill and Brecht-heavy days of Music of Hair, Thrills, and Oh! The Grandeur to the semi-mainstream indie pop of The Swimming Hour, but it's his seemingly limitless capacity for manipulation of the violin that dominates Noble Beast. Opening cut "Oh No," a track that Bird began releasing sketches of months before the album's street date, may be his most successful foray into the murky world of the potentially commercial pop song yet, boasting a chorus that points directly at the Shins while maintaining the artistic integrity of the loop-happy, meticulous craftsman who fans have been watching evolve since 2003's Weather Systems. What follows is a typically eclectic batch of material that reflect Bird's own musical time line. Tracks like "Masterswarm" and "Not a Robot, But a Ghost" are proof positive that he hasn't completely abandoned his swing jazz roots, "Fitz and the Dizzyspells" could very well provide audiences with their first opportunity to "bust a move" at a show, while "Nomenclature"'s easy country-folk front half dissolves into a rear end that wouldn't seem out of place on a late-'90s Radiohead album. Throughout it all Bird rhymes -- sometimes to a fault -- like a history or biology professor ("From proto-Sanskrit Minoans to porto-centric Lisboans"), rendering many of the songs clever as opposed to emotionally resonant, but whatever romance he lacks in the textual medium he more than makes up for in melody. [The deluxe version of the album includes an impressive bonus disc of instrumental works, cleverly titled Useless Creatures, which features collaborations with Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche and jazz bassist Todd Sickafoose.] ~ James Christopher MRolling Stone (p.67) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's Bird's impressionistic lyrics that carry the emotional payload. 'Nomenclature' is a sweet ballad that explodes unexpectedly."
Spin (p.94) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "With his SAT-acing vocabulary, Bird still rocks some of the best rhymes in the game....Bird's phlegmatic voice has a way of softening tragedies and soothing beasts -- natural, noble, or otherwise."
Alternative Press (p.103) - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "Debut single 'Oh No' combines gently picked acoustic guitar, delicate beats and Bird's signature whistling to create a lush soundscape for the musician's literary lyrics to play upon."
Q (Magazine) (p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 -- '[T]he unhurried 'Natural Disaster' is as elegiac as pop music can be and, once it gets going, 'The Privateers' is proof that he can do thumping pop too."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.109) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "His trademark whistling and twilight violin lend a blissful sense of romantic resignation to the folky 'Masterswarm' and the gypsy-tinged 'Tenuousness'..."
Blender (Magazine) (p.62) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "This beast takes care and feeding, but its purring tongue has hints to drop about our changing times."
Paste (magazine) (p.50) - "Here, Bird's arrangements are uncharacteristically subtle. Trademark orchestral swells take the backburner to confident vocals, easy melodies, guitar plucking and -- yes -- freakishly good whistling."
Clash (magazine) (p.93) - "Andrew Bird's latest offering plays out like a weird dream sequence. The multi-instrumentalist uses his skill to great effect..."