On The Bird Ensemble's website for its new (free) release, The Last Songbook, it is mentioned how the project was started after the completion of predecessor Migrations in response to a growing desire to carve out a creative entity for the band. It's not unusual for bands to look back on their previous work and have a strong need to 'reinvent' their sound, but such an event generally comes later in their career than TBE is experiencing, and after much more success. Whatever internal struggles have fueled this decision are unknown to me, but I'm not convinced that it was a smart move.

Thomas Lloyd previously commended the band's ability to walk the fine line between subtlety and directness. And perhaps this was the band's greatest asset coming into The Last Songbook. There are many post-rock bands across the face of the world, but hard evidence will tell us that a very small percentage of them seem to really grasp the fundamentals of the genre and are able to exploit them en route to rising to a higher, more sophisticated level than the seminal acts who originally exposed us all to the greatness of post-rock. Time after time we see bands without purpose and drive, without the analytical tools of self-censoring and revision, who think that a large enough amp and sufficient amount of pedals will pave out a 'classic' post-rock album. The Bird Ensemble saw another aspect of this magical music and thoroughly nailed it on Migrations.

In contrast, The Last Songbook slips off into the land of subtlety, and in the process seems to quell the ever important emotional aspect of their music. To put it succinctly, the heart is missing in The Last Songbook. Tracks are highly repetitive and largely uninteresting; understandably they seek listeners who are more detail oriented, but are also offering material that vastly pales in comparison to that of Six Parts Seven or This is Your Captain Speaking, if that's the card they choose to play. It's frustrating, especially for those of us who feel in love with Migrations, to see the band surgically remove the parts of it that created a sense of balance in the music. As much as I love my pointless, abstract music, there's also a fine art there which is not accomplished here.

The length of the release is also a problem. Six tracks clock in at just over twenty minutes. On one hand I can't feel that whatever they're seeking to accomplish on this release is prematurely stunted by the short track titles. Subtle tracks generally need a little bit more time to develop and evolve, whereas tracks that are more direct don't need to be so meandering (if there is a point, it is generally better the faster a band gets to it). Many of the tracks do contain good ideas, but are never given the opportunity to grow into anything more, which is a fatal blow to the album. Also, at twenty minutes, it's not clear that the band itself was interested enough in the material to give it more of an effort. What we find on this disc is highly lacking, almost devoid of attachment to the artist, and utterly unrepresentative of the great things about The Bird Ensemble.

Many great bands before The Bird Ensemble have walked the line between subtlety and directness with great successes -- Do Make Say Think and Foxhole come to mind. My suggestion to the band would be not to be ashamed of its musical lineage, but rather to embrace the natural sound of the band and fully explore the route it takes them down. Creativity isn't cut out for everyone, and some people find it in the most unusual of places. Trying to force it out is not always the most beneficial thing to do.

-Lee Whitefield