Noble Beast

Noble Beast is the fifth solo studio album by the American singer-songwriter Andrew Bird, and his eighth overall. It was released on January 20, 2009.^[1] Two songs from this album were previewed on his webpage; "Oh No" and "Carrion Suite", while the entire album was made available by NPR^[2] as a streaming feed. Noble Beast was made available as a standard CD release, a special limited-edition deluxe two-CD package and a double-LP package.

Noble Beast
Studio album by Andrew Bird
Released	January 20, 2009
Genre	Baroque pop
Length	54:17
Label	Fat Possum (US) Bella Union (UK)
Andrew Bird chronology
Soldier On EP (2007) Noble Beast (2009) Fingerlings 4 (2010)

The track "Tenuousness" appears in the closing credits for the 2011 movie Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	79/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
The A.V. Club	(B+)[5]
Drowned in Sound	(9/10)[6]
The Guardian	[7]
LA Times	[8]
Paste	(6.7/10)[9]
Tiny Mix Tapes	[10]
Pitchfork Media	(7.5/10)[11]
Rolling Stone	[12]
The Skinny	[13]
Spin	(7/10)[14]
Uncut	[15]

The album received a Metacritic score of 79 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.^[3]

The album debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 12, and No. 3 on the Top Rock Albums Albums chart,^[16] selling 26,000 copies in the first week.^[17] The album has sold 150,000 copies in the United States as of December 2011^[update].^[18]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Andrew Bird, except where noted.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Oh No"		4:20
2.	"Masterswarm"		6:35
3.	"Fitz and the Dizzyspells"		3:36
4.	"Effigy"		5:06
5.	"Tenuousness"		3:51
6.	"Nomenclature"		2:54
7.	"Ouo"		0:20
8.	"Not a Robot, but a Ghost"	Bird, Martin Dosh	5:37
9.	"Unfolding Fans"	Bird, Jeremy Ylvisaker	0:57
10.	"Anonanimal"		4:47
11.	"Natural Disaster"		4:18
12.	"The Privateers"		3:24
13.	"Souverian"		7:18
14.	"On Ho"		1:08

Bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
15.	"Section 8 City" (iTunes only bonus track)	7:41
16.	"10-you-us" (iTunes pre-order only bonus track)
17.	"Take Courage" (eMusic only bonus track)	6:51

Other appearances

• "Not a Robot, But a Ghost" samples from the song "First Impossible," which appears on Dosh's album Wolves and Wishes.
• "The Privateers" uses the same lyrics as "The Confession," a song appearing on Oh! The Grandeur by Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire.
• A different version of "Section 8 City" appears on Fingerlings 4.

Useless Creatures (Deluxe edition bonus disc)

Deluxe Edition album art, used for the Noble Beast/Useless Creatures 2-CD set

The limited edition of Noble Beast shipped with a companion disc of instrumental songs, entitled Useless Creatures.^[19] This collection was made available on Bird's website in early January, before the album's release. Noble Beast / Useless Creatures was deleted after a single run, both in the US and the UK, exclusively.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Master Sigh"	2:17
2.	"You Woke Me Up!"	7:24
3.	"Nyatiti"	4:01
4.	"The Barn Tapes"	10:12
5.	"Carrion Suite"	9:39
6.	"Spinney"	0:45
7.	"Dissent"	3:54
8.	"Hot Math"	7:18
9.	"Sigh Master"	5:32

Personnel

• Andrew Bird – violin, vocals, whistling, guitar
• Martin Dosh – percussion, looping, keys
• Jeremy Ylvislaker – guitar, bass, organ, shortwave
• Kelly Hogan – background vocals
• Mike Lewis – clarinet
• Todd Sickafoose – double bass
• Ben Martin – cardboard box drums
• Tony Crow – juno

Charts

Chart (2009)	Peak position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[20]	77
French Albums (SNEP)[21]	62
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[22]	64
US Billboard 200[23]	12
US Digital Albums (Billboard)[24]	2
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[25]	1
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[26]	3
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[27]	2