Beginning with a skipping step, enthusiastic whistling and playful backing vocals that suggest a leisurely walk in the park, "Oh No" introduces Noble Beast with a festive air that allows this violin-wielding Chicago singer-songwriter to explore his pop side. This extra lift in his step remains throughout. While his influences are steeped in various unrelated traditions that tend towards the darker corners - from jazz to folk to German drinking songs, you name it - Bird mixes and matches as he hears fit with an ebullient grace. The six-and-a-half-minute "Masterswarm" is a bucolic swath of mystery, flowing onward with a stream-like consciousness, reminiscent of the loose and free cadences of Van Morrison and Tim Buckley. "Fitz and the Dizzyspells" pulls up with a tough, decisive rhythm section that yields to Bird's sublime melodic musings. Each track offers up a diverse collection of thoughts and impressions. The sad Spanish guitar that drives "Effigy," the strains of film noir that lace "Nomenclature," the haunting early-'70s folk of "Unfolding Fans," all come together without a feeling of forced eclecticism but as a focused, united musical front. - iTunes
