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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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Noble Beast
by Andrew Bird
This is the latest solo album for the singer/songwriter.
| LABEL: |
Fat Possum |
| RELEASE DATE: |
20 January 2009 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Rock, Indie |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90
Alternative Press
It's less mopey than Bright Eyes, less pompous than Sufjan Stevens and better than almost everything else. [Feb 2009, p.103]
80
Delusions of Adequacy
Bird is in full control and evokes his The Swimming Hour and everyone’s favorite, Mysterious Production of Eggs, days; those days where he did everything on his own. All of the aforementioned allows him to present one of his best albums to date.
80
All Music Guide
Whatever romance he lacks in the textual medium he more than makes up for in melody.
80
Boston Globe
The man's wordsmithing is even headier than his beautiful songs.
80
Hartford Courant
Whatever the sound, his songs are unfailingly catchy, and his smart lyrics and lovely melodies make them stand out even when they're understated.
75
Entertainment Weekly
Noble Beast veers off into a cheerily nonspecific world of jangly guitars and meandering melodies that evoke everyone from Okkervil River to Radiohead without ever making an impact of their own.
75
Pitchfork
The sometimes drifting song structures, frequent tonal shifts, odd lyrics, and interludes presented a stuffed canvas full of interesting sounds that didn't seem to have a focal point, didn't seem to have a place where you were supposed to enter the composition. Eventually, however, everything fell into place.
75
Los Angeles Times
Beast is his most instantly inviting album by far and vividly underscores his skills as a producer.
70
Tiny Mix Tapes
Although it’s undoubtedly consistent and enjoyable, these are the kind of adjectives that restrain this established songwriter from truly challenging or surprising his audience.
70
Spin
With his SAT-acing vocabulary, Bird still rocks some of the best rhymes in the game, cobbling together his own foreign language from arcane terms.
70
Blender
Some songs are all middle, stuck on what might be mere bridges by, say, Rufus Wainwright or Paul Simon. Yet Bird’s open-field poetics do let a wider world creep in, from the corruption of ecosystems to the isolation that can afflict a touring musician or a declining leader alike.
70
Rolling Stone
Here, he takes another leap, fusing Armchair's emotive indie rock with the chamber-music experimentalism of his early recordings.
70
Sputnikmusic
With Noble Beast, time stands still for a brief moment until a song eventually hits a certain plateau, but sometimes that plateau can be too distant.
60
PopMatters
Bird probably could have stood to cull a few of the weaker numbers, and with the additional room, might have reworked a few of the selections from Useless Creatures into experimental pop songs, thereby tempering his lack of risk taking on Noble Beast.
60
No Ripcord
There certainly isn't a lack of beautifully crafted, well produced music on this release, but if you're looking for a full plate of pop-inspired power ballads, stick to the last two discs.
40
NOW Magazine
There are some sweet la-la-la bits and a bit of cheery whistling, but nothing jarring or abrasive which might prevent listeners from lapsing into a deep sleep by the sixth track.
The average user rating for this album is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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