I hear a good melody and I am hooked – the kind of thing that sounds like it is crawling over and through the nooks and crannies of the music as if a centipede is making its way through the busy forest undergrowth.
And that’s what Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast / Useless Creatures was: Busy forest undergrowth, with beautiful melodies weaving through it, across it, and sometimes opposed to it.
The lush background was entrancing, often sounding something like a hymn. Bird plays violin, guitar, mandolin, and glockenspiel (not to mention whistling), and sometimes loops it all. But the listener may just be most drawn to his vocal melodies, which are that centipede I mention above, tasked not only with flexing and bending over a complex terrain, but also with the intricately verbose, multi-syllabic lyrics Andrew Bird can’t help but explore in every song.
It seems like odd, demanding music when described, but the results arrived on January 20, 2009 as something both serene and beautiful. Noble Beast / Useless Creatures was the kind of thing that, for the right listeners, quickly became a favorite – and Andrew Bird has continued to build his fanbase with each release.
Skip the one-disc release and instead look for the deluxe, two-disc edition of Noble Beast / Useless Creatures, which features a second album of instrumental music. You won’t be sorry.
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