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February 17, 2009
Posted by kramer
From here on out, it will be my personal goal to make a Musicbath weekly for the rest of the year. I have found that it has become increasing more difficult to write musical reviews. What can I say that hasn't already been said? What gives my opinion any more weight than any other listener to music today? Can I provide some type of insight that would allow someone to gain more joy or more feeling when they finally listen to a particular song or artist? I don't know. What I do know is that there is still an enormous amount of music out today that still gets very limited attention and it deserves more. There are musicians that are making some beautiful music but it will never grace many people's eardrums because they can't afford to purchase airtime on corporate radio stations. I hope to still bring at least some of these artists to you so you can have a bit more variety in your musical diet.
This week I'm going back to an old stand-by. Andrew Bird has been covered by me in the past due to his awesome live shows (and that one was twice as awesome as it was free). There has been a ton of hype on his new album but I was a bit skeptical of it as I had heard a few new songs on the Internet. NOBLE BEAST, the new disc, is a fine disc. I can not take anything away from it. It is a fusion of multiple genres, which Bird is a maestro at doing. He can take jazz, calypso and rock, throw them together and make something that is pleasing to the ear.
With all of that being said, I feel like this disc is a step backwards musically for him. This is definitely his folk entry for the Andrew Bird library. One of the highlights of any Bird album is the tremendous whistling melodies he can create mixed with his interesting violin interpretations. His last cd had all of these features plus so many different sounds and feelings added to it with the assortment of loops and programming courtesy of Martin Dosh. That is what this disc is missing. The two of them combined create collaborations that are phenomenal. Bird by himself is no slouch but he definitely brings different talents and attributes to the songwriting process.
You can do far, far worse than adding NOBLE BEAST to your musical collection. I have zero regrets and I love Bird just as much now as I did before. The problem with such talented artists is that you always have much higher expectations from them on each subsequent release. This happens quite frequently with critical darlings (see Radiohead) and it is impossible to make the best disc for every single person. What I enjoy the most from Bird's music can be completely different than what someone else may love. The joy of him is that he offers so many different sounds that he can appeal and please all.
Check out tracks: Fitz & Dizzyspells; The Privateers; Oh No
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