indy cd & vinyl

BRIGHT EYES - “CASSADAGA”

Playing in bands since he was 13, and putting out records since he was 17, 27-year old Conor Oberst (under the moniker Bright Eyes) is a true veteran of the indie-rock scene.

Some time ago, he also developed into indie-rock’s finest lyricist. Comparisons to Dylan are obviously always unwise, and Oberst certainly does not deal in the fantastical poetic imagery characteristic of such classics as “All Along The Watchtower”. But there is certainly something deserving in such a comparison when you encounter the brilliant wordplay in lines like, “Squatters made a mural of a Mexican girl/With 15 cans of spray paint and a chemical swirl/She’s standing in the ashes at the end of the world/Four winds blowing through her hair,” (from Cassadaga’s “Four Winds”). Or take, “All this automatic writing, I have tried to understand/From a psychedelic angel who was tugging on my hand/It’s an infinite coincidence but it doesn’t form a plan” from “”If The Brakeman Turns My Way”. And scan the lines, “Her bed beneath the crucifix and guests performing miracles/With the son of God just hanging like a common criminal/”When I do wrong, I am with God,” she thought/When I feel lost, I am not, at all,” from “Hot Knives”. In all cases (and throughout all his albums), such lyrical facility becomes almost commonplace, although, like Dylan, it is obviously NOT commonplace. That said, how does Cassadaga fit into the Bright Eyes’ canon? (NOTE: how many artists today even have a canon?) . It is certainly mellower, with mid-tempo songs abounding, and is much more suffused with country sounds and orchestral passages than earlier works. More noticeably, there is also much less personal angst on full display. It feels almost like a transitional album, as Oberst moves from the “boy wonder” of previous years into life as a full-fledged adult, and is struggling with all the reflective nuances, both musically and lyrically, that such a move entails for any artist. A very high compliment, indeed, for Cassadaga is that it makes his next album eagerly anticipated, in order to see just where his musical muse is headed.