the arrangements on noble beast sound very familiar, as andrew bird’s songs are still anchored by his strengths: his voice, violin and vaudevillian whistling. consequently, this album is not as guitar heavy as armchair apocrypha, nor is it bird’s most inspired release, particularly given his fondness in the past for finding creative ways to mine older styles. instead, noble beast finds bird toying with new and varying instruments, managing to breathe some life into his material while still remaining true to his oh-so-eclectic style. although noble beast isn’t bird’s most adventurous record musically, these subtle shifts in instrumentation tease at new influences and work well with what bird is doing lyrically.
witty wordplay is still the driving force of his lyrics, which revel in ambiguities— in fact, the album is a treatise on ambiguities, allowing bird to exercise and explore his fascination with palindromes once again. as the songs “oh no” and “on ho!” bookend the entire record, bird ponders how subtle transformations make for significant changes and in a similar sense, the power of ambiguities, by exploring both the “oh no’s” with the “on ho’s” and everything that occurs between those seemingly oppositional reactions. even though this album isn’t his strongest musically, or uniform conceptually, i just can’t help but whistle along.
Filed under: Album Review , 2009, andrew bird, noble beast
