There's always been something about Andrew Bird's music that has attracted oddballs. Whether it's the idiosyncratic curiosities that Bird weaves so deliciously between the layers of each of his songs (handclaps, whistles, loops, samples, glock et al) or simply because he chooses to sing from a perspective that sits him right on the cusp of mainstream pop. culture, there's long since been an innate allure to Bird's music for societies' freewheelers.

'Noble Beast' will not disappoint this feverishly-committed community. It will, however, open Andrew Bird up to a whole new audience; a mainstream, six-albums-a-year, 2.4 kids, Ford Mondeo kinda audience. Because make no bones about it, this is one big, sweating, unashamed slab of intelligent, infectious and downright brilliant pop music. If 'Armchair Apocrypha' was Bird's coming of age LP then 'Noble Beast' is his breakthrough. It really is that simple.

As with many of Bird's compositions, the muse for each of the songs on 'Noble Beast' remains unremarkably bog-standard. Death, love, life and paranoia are all covered with regularity across the album's breadth but it is Bird's knack for approaching these huge, often-suffocating subject matters from such obscure and unique angles that sits at the heart of his songwriting gift.

When he, for instance, talks of death and its potent weight on the shoulders of mankind, he does so through the terror in a child's mind as he braves a brisk spot of turbulence on a flight. 'Oh no' the child wails in blind horror. 'Oh no' we all regularly panic when the spectre of death rears its ugly head. It's sublimely done and a perfect snapshot of Bird's genius.

Across the length of this album Bird also leans on the shoulders of a fine supporting cast. Andreas Werliin from Wildbirds and Peacedrums and Emil Svanangen (Loney Dear) offer the most breathtaking moment - turning 'The Privateers' into a slice of anthemic radio-ready pop - but it's when Bird is left to his own devices (as with 'Masterswarm') that he consistently shows his class.

'Noble Beast' is a jaw-dropping work of art. A unique, melodic and all-embracing collection of music that is as unpredictable and eccentric as it is brilliant and mainstream-friendly. It takes a very special songwriter to pen such a collection. Ladies and Gentleman... we give you Andrew Bird.

'Noble Beast' is out on Bella Union now.

Words: Matt Brown
Official Site: www.andrewbird.net