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Release: 2009

Style: indie / light prog-rock

Label: www.bellaunion.com

Website:  www.andrewbird.net

Playing Time: 54:16 + 51:07

This double album will be a pleasant surprise and an encounter with a really original artist for many a music lover. His light-footed, optimistic music and clever sur-realistic poetry is hard not to be appreciated. I wonder how come that I didn’t discover this highly talented songwriter, virtuoso violin player and gifted singer a long time ago. He is in recording business already since 1996. I looked up a few of his earlier albums, and was flabbergasted how really good they are. If you dig this one, check also at lease “Armchair Apocrypha” from 2007 and “The Mysterious Production of Eggs” from 2005. And may be it is worth an effort to look up his former band - the Bowl of Fire.

Bird’s stile is a light kind of indie rock, mostly quite cheerful, a little eclectic, sometimes a little jazzy or folk, sometimes rocky and electric. I will compare him with Cat Stevens, but a little more playful, or Jeff Buckley, but a little lighter. This last comparison actually stands even stronger, because Bird has, like Buckley, a beautiful, little guttural and very flexible tenor, and his song writing also produces nice and catchy tunes, still being quite complex and intelligent.

Bird is a very skilful whistler and violin player. He started playing violin already in 1977, since the age of four. Luckily, Bird has a sense of measure. The violin is present, but not too much in the foreground, mostly somewhere behind or on the side of the arrangements, underlying the tunes, and always subtle. It produces sometimes quite unexpected for this instrument sounds, like a saw, mosquito, cymbals or ukelele. His pizzicato technique (plucking the violin strings) is really marvellous.

This luxury edition consists of two CD’s. The first one, “Noble Beast”, is a bundle of musical stories about various weird little creatures, who have characters and life stories, just like human beings. Kafka comes inevitably in my mind. Only Bird’s beetle doesn’t keep laying down on his back, helpless and vulnerable. On contrary, it is feeling steady on it’s legs, frolicking around, finding some interesting microscopic things and thinking unusual thoughts about them. Sometimes, when it feels like, it even spreads it’s wings and flies away, high above the ground, finding some interesting macroscopic things and thinking unusual thoughts about them. Bird’s poetry is surrealistic, sometimes a little Dadaistic. He plays with words, metamorphosing the meanings and spelling by switching a letter or two. In this, he is more progressive with poetry, than with music, at least on this record.

All the 14 songs are perfectly arranged and thought out, to the last note. Every number is a precious diamond, where the maker have cut many facets, making it shine and attract in a very subtle and non-obtrusive way. The songs have everything, that an ideal progressive rock songs should have: a progression of the melody, rhythm changes and two or three beautiful tunes, which I myself can not resist to whistle along. But it’s not a prog-rock record. The music is a little more light and “normal” than what we usually mean with prog-rock, so may be indie is the most appropriate category for it.

The second record in the set, “Useless Creatures”, is a different story. It is completely instrumental, and this time the music is everything but normal. It is much more unusual and even avant-garde. The violin moved to the foreground here, filling the space left empty by the absent voice. And it does it wonderfully. Bird invents violin techniques and sounds, making every number a real adventure. It would be fun, if Bird turned things around here, and wrote lyrics for the second cd as well, but this time, making “normal” lyrics to the abnormal music, just opposite to what he did on “Noble Beast”! Oh well, never mind this, it just pops up in my mind. “Useless Creatures” is beautiful like it is, only it has a different mood, so choose the setting to listen to it right, and you will enjoy it.

5 stars, highly recommended for prog-rockers, looking for something really new and fresh.

Tracklist:

Noble Beast

1. Oh No 4:20         

2. Masterswarm 6:35         

3. Fitz and the Dizzyspells 3:36    

4. Effigy 5:06         

5. Tenuousness 3:51         

6. Nomenclature 2:54        

7. Ouo 0:20  

8. Not a Robot, But a Ghost 5:37  

9. Unfolding Fans 0:57       

10. Anonanimal 4:47          

11. Natural Disaster 4:18   

12. The Privateers 3:24     

13. Souverian 7:18  

14. On Ho 1:08

Useless Creatures

1. Master Sigh (2:23) 

2. You Woke Me Up! (7:26)

3. Nyatiti (3:59)

4. The Barn Tapes (10:03)

5. Carrion Suite (9:47)

6. Spinney (0:49)

7. Dissent (3:51)

8. Hot Math (7:20)

9. Sigh Master (5:24)

Musicians:

Mike Lewis Clarinet

David Lindvall Bass, Engineer

Tony Crow Juno

Glenn Kotche Percussion

Andrew Bird Guitar, Engineer, Producer, Whistle (Human), Violin, Arranger, Vocals

Jeremy Ylvisaker Organ, Shortwave Radio, Guitar, Bass

Todd Sickafoose Double Bass, Editing, Mixing

Martin Dosh Percussion, Keyboards, Loops

Emil Svanängen Flute, Vocals (Background)

Kelly Hogan Vocals (Background) 

I don't hear any of that. 

I listened to the myspace songs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It may be my problem, but I don't see, what makes Peter Gabriel, Talk Talk or Phideux much proggier than A. Bird? May be exactly, that his compositions are more complex. I still think he fully fits here. The composition are actually much complexer than Gazpacho or latest Radioheads, etc. which I personally don't see fit here. And than, I don't even talk about the lyrics, which have a beautiful complexity, and are anything else, but pop. Strange that you just block the other users from sharing such a great artist. Could it be explained exactly by the complexity of his music and lyrics? Not easy to understand after one or even two listens. But once you get it, you will keep enjoying him, exactly because you will discover all the time new nuances, new arrangments or word jokes you missed previous times.

 I agreed

Ha, I am glad you guys didn't leave the topic yet. Talking about  Sufjan Stevens, I don't know him, but if he indeed writes a music Proletariat is describing, then why isn't he in the crossover prog as well? 

Take them both in!  baroque pop ... hmm.., if it is is a synonymous to prog, then I fully agree. We are talking of a merging genres. think, where prog comes from. When a metal band begins to write more complex music, we will call it prog metall, right? So, if indie gets complex, should we call it prog-indie, may be? Doesn't sound right, though....

The crossover team has had nothing to do with his addition. 

 

ACTUALLY... You should listen to The Age of Adz- I felt like that was prog as hell.

A site can't avoid personal liking / not liking. This is impossible because Admins, SCs and Teams are human beings, they're not computers with some *What's Prog* programme.

Harmonuim, I think about Anrew Bird's music as about, say, "modern prog", but he maybe don't know that I think the same about Sade's 80s hits 

I know what you're saying. However. I think on sites such as these, were everyone knows the team members and (from their reviews etc) knows what they like and don't like, there is greater transparency. I.E. people know that a member doesn't like singer-songwriter music for example, therefore if they regularly vote "no" to singer-songwriter suggestions this will be very obvious to others, and rather than throw unfounded wild accusations around, there will be substantiated proof of such mis-voting. Therefore there is a good chance that the team member will subconsciously overcompensate and vote "Yes" to singer-songwriter more than normal.

I don't have an evidence that Crossover Team have denied the addition of mr. Bird because they don't like his music.

Please accept my apology.

 

I know for a fact that we, in the crossover team, have approved many artists that some or all of us don't like.  I know we never use that as criteria.  What does occur is that in most cases where we vote no, each member provides a reason for the vote.  We also often reject bands that we like for not being progressive.  It works both ways.

 

As far as Andrew Bird, we have not evaluated his music.

 

On the flip side of the issue, most members are not privy to the discussions that go on in between collaborators, and have no way of knowing why a band was accepted or rejected.  And while I don't like an accusation as was posted here, personally I am thick skinned enough to let it go, and I would not want to see any action taken against a member for such a thing unless it escalates.

 

If any member wants to question me on any decision of a team that I am on, they are always welcome to contact me.

Hi, meanwhile, there is a new album from Andrew Bird coming out. Lets see how it is. By the way, on Noble Beast, the whole second disk of the deluxe edition is an instrumental music. A pure prog, if you ask me. even a little avantguarde. You can call me a tram if you call this disc pop.

From the last post of evolver, I read this: "As far as Andrew Bird, we have not evaluated his music."

So, it appears, you didn't evaluate his music. May be, it will be a good idea to to it :-)?????