Andrew Bird has always been an incredible talent, but it was his last two albums, The Mysterious Production of Eggs and Armchair Apocrypha that really set him apart from the rest of the music world and showed just how unique he could truly be. A virtuoso when it comes to the violin and to whistling, Bird conjures up songs and sound structures that bring to mind no one else. His new album Noble Beast does nothing to change that mindset.

Noble Beast is definitely cut from the same cloth that Eggs and Apocrypha were cultivated from and it is stunningly beautiful to listen to, but nothing sticks out here and it isn't as instantly haunting as those other two albums were. Part of that probably stems from the fact that Bird gets a bit too brainy and wordy with his lyrics for his own good. When you feel like you need to sit down with a dictionary just to enjoy an album sometimes it can be a bit much.

There's nothing on Noble Beast that's easy to sing along to and that's fine, but once in a while as the listener you just want to be in on the fun as much as the musicians are. Even though I don't find Noble Beast to be one of Bird's very best, it's still leaps and bounds better than 90 percent of the music out there today and I can't help but imagine that with repeated listens, this album will slowly but surely open up into another very good collection of songs from one of the few artists working today that can honestly be called remarkable.