"The Gourds have always been a tough band to pin down. Their ninth studio album and first for the Yep Roc label, Noble Creatures, resists pigeon-holing as much as their earlier work, opening as it does with the ska-inflected, horn-accented tune "How Will You Shine?," an upbeat song that abandons much of the band's more identifiably bluegrass catalog. Although the Gourds are frequently considered a bluegrass exponent, and not too unreasonably so given the often dominant presence of banjos and mandolins and their often self-consciously twangy lyrics, they are no bluegrass band. Not in any traditional sense, nor in the newgrass sense. To call the Gourds bluegrass elides their experimentation and innovation as musicians - experimentation, I should point out, that pays off with a jackpot on Noble Creatures.

Noble Creatures is, more than anything, a fairytale album, combining catchy but often cryptic lyrics with an eclectic juxtaposition of instrumentation and musical styles. The Gourds tip their hats to ska ("How Will You Shine?"), indie rock ("A Few Extra Kilos"), zydeco ("Cranky Mulatto") and even a little ‘70s rock crooning ("Last Letter"). But what might come across as schizophrenia for other bands comes across as virtuosity when the Gourds are at the helm.

The most divergent development in style on Noble Creatures, however, is the emphasis on ballads, which the Gourds have only hinted at in the past. "Promenade" announces the focus most spectacularly, Kev Russell trading the group's usual heavy, contorted allusions for a direct emotional poetics: "I traded yer sweetness for my loneliness, Yer confidence for my own regrets, Yer simple grace for this disarray, That's my stock and trade while you promenade." Russell's slow, heartbroken croon over the longing piano and guitar twang falls where the Band meets the Drive-By Truckers.

Despite the slower ballads, if there is one consistent feature in the album, it's the upbeat nature, at least rhythmically, off all the songs. This is driving music. This is also music for music's sake, which might explain the indulgence in so many seemingly disparate genres. There is no political statement in this album, nor are the band members using their audience to exorcise the demons of lost love or other personal traumas. Instead, they've brought their instruments to the studio to show off, to crank out fourteen tightly composed and executed tracks that, while eluding easy description, are guaranteed to raise your pulse and maybe make you drive just a little too fast."

--Nathan Kreuter, Austin Sounds