Continuing on the theme of records that came out several months ago, but which I never got around to discussing, today’s entry is the moderately underwhelming Cassadega from the precious emo-lab Conor Oberst, otherwise known as Bright Eyes.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a bad record by any stretch – it simply lacks the force of some of his previous work (particularly the magnificent I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning), which makes it a mild disappointment. Where in previous years the main complaint I would file against Bright Eyes was the overwrought style, I think the opposite is true here. The biggest problem I have with Cassadega is simply that it’s a little boring. Too many songs that sound too similar.
Part of what makes Bright Eyes stand out from the crowd is Oberst’s unbalanced lyrics, his warbling voice. I’m not saying I’m itching for a return of the cracked psychosis of Fevers and Mirrors, but I do wish a little bit more of that was given space to shine through. Instead, his conceits here appear to rest mostly along far more traditional country-western lines. And to be sure, when it works well (such as the bluesy “Four Winds” or the gentle slide guitar on “If The Brakeman Turns My Way”) it produces very fine songs.
All complaints aside, Oberst has a very fine sense of the simplest human frailties, and that shines through in these songs. It is a window into the discomfort of our souls – a chance to see ourselves in all our absurdity – but he remains eternally compassionate. We all have our weaknesses, but it is responses to those weaknesses that give us vitality.
My final complaint is with the unfortunate decision to relegate “Reinvent the Wheel, without a doubt the best song he’s written in years (since 2002’s magical “From a Balance Beam”), to the Four Winds EP. Of course, thanks to the magic of the digital age, I am free to listen to music in whatever order I like, but it still disrupts my appreciation of the album’s completeness to know that a song which dwarfs the rest of its songs resides so near.
MP3s:
Four Winds – Bright Eyes (Cassadega)
If the Brakeman Turns My Way – Bright Eyes (Cassadega)
Reinvent the Wheel – Bright Eyes (Four Winds EP)