The beginning of the year in the music world apparently belongs to Animal Collective. Even newspapers are weighing in with both thumbs up. For me, the first great release of the year is Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast and its ample instrumental companion record, Useless Creatures. Like many, I was completely enraptured with The Mysterious Production Of Eggs. Topping such a record is inevitably a mighty feat, and one I don’t expect or unfairly use as a benchmark for other Andrew Bird records. That being said, I did feel disappointed by the 2007 release, Armchair Apocrypha. Part of it was an overwhelming amount of other great records that year that monopolized my listening habits and a little bit of the album never hitting me with full force like Eggs did.

Welcome to 2009. I live in Wisconsin. The winters are cold and brutal, enough to make me proclaim weekly to my girlfriend that I’ve had it with the snow and want to move south. Sometime after Christmas I got my first listen of Noble Beast, listening via the complimentary white iPhone earbuds that were in my backpack out of respect to those still trying to sleep. Noble Beast showcases all the things that make Andrew Bird the respected artist he is. The record contains some of my favorite Bird songs to date. “Masterswarm” and “Fitz & Dizzyspells” capture the upbeat nature of the Andrew Bird catalog while “Souverian” showcases the delicate slow-burn beauty that makes this album so universally appealing. Great as those songs are, my absolute favorite at the moment is “Anonanimal” which alternates between guitar chords and delicately plucked violin strings. Noble Beast is one of the rare finds that I can listen to it from start to finish, without interest waning. It’s a complete package that should capture an even wider audience for Andrew Bird.

I’d be remiss to not mention/urge those interested in picking up the record to spend the additional money and purchase the deluxe package including the instrumental disc, Useless Creatures. A perfect musical companion piece to Noble Beast that is worth the price of admission for “Nyatiti” alone.

Noble Beast is out January 20th on Fat Possum. Thanks to NPR you can currently stream Noble Beast in full here.

Buy: Noble Beast / Useless Creatures (Deluxe Edition)
Myspace: Andrew Bird