Bright Eyes
Cassadaga
Rating: 7.0 (out of 10)
Disappointing, yes. Rather monotonous, yes. Nothing particularly memorable, certainly. But nothing particularly horrible. Overall, a solid effort, and if I didn't compare it to masterpieces like Lifted, or the Story is in Soil, or pray that another "Light Pollution" or "Center of the World" or "A Perfect Sonnet" or "Lover I Don't Have to Love" or... I could go on and on, but yeah, it doesn't even begin to measure up. Yet as an album, the songs mostly work well together and blend into one another and the music has grown on me in subsequent listens. I'd say it was a good effort, an impressive array of music from a now-experienced artist, but ultimately, not the home run I was hoping for, and in this year of incredible releases from a wide range of indie rock legends, I have a feeling that Conor's latest will simply be forgotten. Which is a shame, because a lot of it is really beautiful music. It's just maybe not powerful enough.
"Four Winds" highlights the early part of the album, a great song with political overtones that appears to be discussing the religious battle for the end of the world currently taking place in Iraq and much of the world. "The Bible is blind, the Torah is deaf, the Qur'an is mute. If you burned them all together, you'd get close to the truth."
"If the Brakeman Comes My Way" provides another early highlight, a very slow ballad that is somewhat unlike a typical Conor song, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Much like the rest of the album, there's a lot to like here, but nothing that really stands out as particularly brilliant. I hate to say it, but the song is borderline pedestrian, borderline mainstream. That is certainly not playing to Bright Eyes' strengths.
"Hot Knives" features M. Ward on guitar and has a bunch of backup guest vocalists but fails to make a strong impression. It's good not great, but better than "Make a Plan to Love Me," which sounds like a bad repeat of "Laura Laurent," one of my least favorite Conor songs. "Soul Singer in a Session Band" is at least interesting, but features too much of an M. Ward influence for my liking. Conor as a country artist is not particularly compelling.
The middle section, "Classic Cars", "Middleman", and "Cleanse Song" step things up a bit. They are each quality songs, although they kind of run into each other. The end of the album contains several gems, though, particularly "No One Would Riot for Less" and the 6+ minute "I Must Belong Somewhere." These songs add quite a bit of beauty and bombast that is missing from the rest of the album, a little of the spirited wonder that made Bright Eyes so great in the first place. I don't know - like I said, there's really nothing bad on here, and most of the songs are good, some even very good, but greatness is sadly missing. Sorry, Conor, but hopefully the next album will be better.
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