Andrew Bird's music has always lingered on the verge of inscrutability, but in Noble Beast he seems to have crossed over the line while reaffirming his status as a cult indie phenomenon.Here's the thing: I absolutely loooove Andrew Bird. So it pains me to note that Noble Beast can best be described as a musical study of Etymology, Entomology, Semantics, and the Ontology of Mathematics. Take, for example, "Masterswarm," which includes such lines as,
flailing fetal fleasOr, in "Oh No," Bird sings, "in the salsify mains of what was thought but unsaid / all the calcified arhythmitists were doing the math."
feeding from the arms of the master
burrow into me
and this is sure to misspell disaster
Oh and the young in the larval stage
Okay, so maybe I am exaggerating about the album's subject material. Musically, "Oh No" is sweet, even quietly beautiful. "Effigy"'s two introductions are a sophisticated introduction to a thoroughly enjoyable song.
But despite the album's instrumental clarity, Andrew Bird's esoteric lyrical references make for a difficult listen. In "Tenuousness," we might imagine Bird singing instead
"Tenuous at best was all he had to say when pressed about the rest of it,Time to put Noble Beast in the "background music" file and move on.
the album*** that is"
Andrew Bird - Oh No
Andrew Bird- Tenuousness
Buy Noble Beast from Amazon.com
Andrew Bird's website/myspace
***(This is my insertion, the original text reads "the world that is")
Labels: Andrew Bird, review
Returning to Ohio after a month of traveling, I'd forgotten that feeling of being snow-stuck, unwilling to freeze outdoors and confined inside instead. My feet are always cold and my socks permanently wet.But the discovery of the lovely Lex Land has made this better, especially listening to her coo about the perpetual cycle of returning only to leave again.
Lex Land - As Much As You Lead (download or die, from the cold)
Lex Land's website/myspace
Labels: lex land
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