Andrew Bird - Noble Beast Album Review

Review of Andrew Bird's album 'Noble Beast' released through Bella Union.

Chicago based multi -instrumentalist and songwriter Andrew Bird has already released a wonderful collection of albums, the pinnacle arguably being 'The Mysterious Production Of Eggs' released in 2005, it's a elegant and clever album, to compare his writing on it, you wouldn't be too far away to say he's a muso version of Jeff Buckley.

Noble Beast is his new addition, perhaps a bit of a departure from his usual song writing, and it's not a fully welcome, In Bird's previous work, he's always been pretty self-sufficient, now he's added more members, (musicians from Wilco) to 'indie up' this new album. The outcome has made the album a little one dimensional, some of the entertainment factor is gone, it's got pleasant moments but it doesn't lead the listener to visualise as much as his previous work.

Produced by Mark Nevers (Calexico and Lambchop) Noble Beast, it's not all as bad as I've perhaps made out, it could be noted as a later-era modern Paul Simon album, the music is played beautifully and Bird's voice is as fantastic as ever.

Rating 7/10

Mike Rea