It’s been three albums in three years for the Nashville post-rock group The Bird Ensemble, and the overall results have been somewhat mixed. TBE's 2007 debut, Migration, took many by surprise, and its two long-form compositions (each spread out over four tracks) showed that this was a band to watch. Unfortunately, the response was much more muted with its follow-up in 2008, The Last Songbook. Although the album was not bad by any means, it just didn’t possess as much creativity and daring as the original, and many were disappointed with it. At the time, some (including myself) wondered if perhaps The Bird Ensemble would have been better served by waiting a little bit longer between albums. Happily ignoring that advice, the Ensemble is back again with Evensong, releasing the record just before the decade drew to a close. Although Evensong still does not manage to best the debut, it does show marked improvement over last year's effort.

The Bird Ensemble’s main problem is a lack of personality. Technically, the band has everything down, but there is often rather little separating its music from any number of other post-rock stalwarts whom one  I could name off the top of his head. This was the primary issue with The Last Songbook, and it still plagues Evensong. However, some of the music on this release does manage to break free of that blight and show itself to be conscious of its influences, even while developing its own voice. The one-two punch of “Oaxaca Variation No. 1” and “The Wayside” in the middle of the album accomplishes this goal admirably. This is not to say that one cannot perceive influences in these songs: the first channels early American groups like Six Parts Seven or Japancakes, while the second calls recent Earth material to mind. However, both songs do an admirable job of putting their own stamp on these established styles. The band seems to have a flair for slow melodic constructions, with little hooks that tug on one's  heartstrings an inch at a time. Later songs flirt back and forth with this establishment of personality, but these two give us the best glimpse of the direction in which the Ensemble might wish to develop itself in the future. There is a magnificent sincerity at work here, which one experiences far too infrequently in this style of music.

Three albums into their career, The Bird Ensemble is obviously still struggling to find its own voice. The band clearly has the ability to write good music; at this point, it just needs to find a way to put  its own spin on the music it creates, acknowledging its influences while simultaneously developing its songs to the point at which they could become influences for others. I’ve staked out one particular direction in which the Ensemble seems poised to move, but it could go in any number of directions. The important thing is that it makes its music truly its own, and that it maintains the stunning sincerity on display in many of its songs.

-Tom Butcher