Andrew Bird- Noble Beast (2009)

Andrew Bird's latest release Noble Beast on Fat Possum records is just the ammunition needed to make the ordinary enchanted. With Bird's penetrative pizzicato, wicked whistling, and clever couplets, listening becomes a majestic voyage. Folding laundry or walking to work become fairy tale adventures when lost in Bird's latest creation. Word play and syllable stammering are most impressive on this album. Cleverly, Bird uses a palindrome for the opening track title, "Oh No" and the last, "On Ho" together they read OHNONHO. Why such a quixotic and creative move? That answer surely lies only in the brain of Bird, walled in by his genuineness accompanied by the rest of his reasoning behind song meanings and compositions. Bird brings back the electricity of collaboration with multi-instrumentalist, Martin Dosh on "Not a Robot, but a Ghost" (my personal favorite track). And die-hard Bird fans will be pleased with the meticulous and melodic bonus album, Useless Creatures, full of instrumentation galore. If such listeners still hunger for more, they can see Bird strut his stuff live at Portland's own Roseland Theater this Saturday February 21st. His performance is sure to be powerful enough to sooth a beast in and of itself.

rating: 7.5
track picks: "Oh No" "Not a Robot but a Ghost" "Anonanimal"