Andrew Bird - 'Noble Beast' (Bella Union) Released 02/02/09

Andrew Bird's fifth solo album on the back of the catchy 'The Mysterious Production Of Eggs' and 2007's much lauded and highest grossing 'Armchair Apocrypha' finds the arcane lyrics and wordy polysyllabic language of 'Noble Beast' set to easy and poppy arrangements on the outside, yet there's such an accomplished depth to 'Noble Beast', it's like listening to virtuoso's of many traditions as Andrew Bird multi-tracks and pulls complex arrangements together in his avant-garde and idiosyncratic approach. A violinist, guitarist, mandolinist and glockenspielist, wordsmith to boot, His is the world of multi-instrumentalist and whistler par excellence, the world inhabited by the Joanna Newsom's, Sufjan Stevens's and King Creosote's. Frolicking among a world of ideas and sound-checked with a spaghetti western ambiance at times, it's fair to say Andrew Bird is virtually unclassifiable, yet look closer and there's pastoral folk flavours at work, bluesy licks, flamenco and mariachi amongst chamber and baroque pop which in his classically trained and undaunted way, he passes off with such savoir faire the man probably eats raw eggs, shell and all.

The dainty mirth of Bird's whistling greets the leading tune 'Oh No', written of a terrified child's fears on a flight and how the child was screaming to escape, Bird singing - "...let's get out of here/ past the atmosphere/ squint your eyes/ and no one dies..." rumbling along on what he describes as a tight Fleetwood Mac beat, it's an effortlessness and collision of ideas that surfaces throughout 'Noble Beast', asking on the rousing 'Nomenclature' - "Just think of the lives you could swap with your own...".  While on 'Effigy' there's a Celtic flavour in the violin that harps back to his folkier leanings yet looking with a morbid wit to what of when I'm gone - "If you come to find me affable/ build a replica for me/ though the idea to you would be laughable/ of a pale facsimile...".

The trans-mutational-combinism of ideas finds 'Masterswarm' open with Radiohead-like drawls and ambiance before exploring pastoral-flamenco with melodious mariachi whistling and that sharp eye for language - "...oh and their young/ in the larval stage/ orchestrating plays/ in vestments of translucent alabaster...". 'Fitz and Dizzyspells' rolls along with songbird whistles and Bird's Gibson layering Michael Brook-like infinite guitar alongside plucked violin with unbridled pop joy as on the ethereal-mariachi of 'Tenuousness', while on 'Not A Robot, But A Ghost' Bird strikes out with a Latino rumba and Marc Ribot-esque fractured guitar and itchy reverb, singing - "...I crack the codes/ to end the war...". Chamber-folk twists with soothing violin turns accompany the electric composition of 'Anoanimal' and there's a distinct Beatles-air on the alt-country of 'Natural Disaster' with a couched, macabre sense of humour seeping through - "...from the first drop of water/ to the rage of Niagara...".

'The Privateers' has a poppy zest with a Fyfe Dangerfield-like tune belting out of from Bird's lungs, but leaving the finer moments to the end, 'Souverian' (a phonetic for "so very young", perchance) is a fine and emotive work with a swooping grandeur even in it's arcane lyrical concealment as Bird gives the violin breadth of range, singing - "...while parsnips still scar my lungs/ while thistles still burn my feet...". Never one to call bread a loaf when there's a story in there, a maverick, a genius - Andrew Bird, 'Noble Beast' - your time has come.