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. Two songs from this album were previewed on his webpage; "Oh No" and "Carrion Suite", while the entire album was made available by NPR 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.
The track "Tenuousness" appears in the closing credits for the 2011 movie Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Reception

The album received a Metacritic score of 79 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.
The album debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 12, and No. 3 on the Top Rock Albums Albums chart, selling 26,000 copies in the first week. The album has sold 150,000 copies in the United States as of 2011.

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 lyrics similar to "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)

The limited edition of Noble Beast shipped with a companion disc of instrumental songs, entitled Useless Creatures. 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.

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