Music Review

22 November 2008 10:33 BST

Bright Eyes: Cassadaga

Polydor, April 9th.

In a nutshell…

Melodious, imaginative, dramatic, inventive, romantic

What's it all about?

Cassadaga marks album number nine for Bright Eyes and its talisman Conor Oberst, adding to an impressive collection of singer/songwriter medleys trying to reach out for that extra soundbite and moment of imagination. Oberst has always been more Nick Drake than Damien Rice, which is a welcome run of form. But can his quiet storytelling compete with innovative solo artists like Patrick Wolf or (gasp) Bob Dylan?

Well, Bright Eyes delivers in the way Ryan Adams could if he really put his mind to it. Cassadaga is a strong set of songs that flies by in the style of a rock'n'roll record, yet with all the nostalgia and melody of a Drake track. No One Would Riot For Less is a great example of this and sums up the high level which Bright Eyes sets himself for each song.

This album doesn't sound rushed and looks to have produced positive results from Oberst's year in the studio frame of mind - writing and recording rather than getting drunk on stage touring the double album. Some of the tracks on here are instantly listenable and highly impressive, showing the likes of Willy Mason how you write a semi-acoustic ballad without sounding drab and repetitive.

Who's it by?

Bright Eyes is Conor Oberst, who writes, or co-writes, the band's material. Multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis features on the album as a permanent band member along with trumpet and piano from Nate Walcott, who has played with Bright Eyes since 2003 and co-wrote Coat Check Dream song with Oberst.

The last time most people will have heard from Oberst is when he made comments about John Peel at Glastonbury not too long after his death. He was met with widespread anger from music fans, but he admits that he was drunk at the time and his comments made no sense.

Cassadaga is the latest instalment of a myriad of studio, live and B-side records.

As an example…

"See the soul singer in the session band/ Shredded to ribbons beneath a microphone stand/ Felt the quickness of pity like a flash in a pan/ For the soul singer in the session band."

"Leave the novelist in his daydream tomb/ Leave the scientist in her Rubik's cube/ Let the true genius in the padded room remain."

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

Bright Eyes, after the success of the double album release I'm Awake, It's Morning and Digital Ash In A Digital Urn, is a big star in the US. People may not recognise him, but he definitely has a chance to scoop the odd award with his new, more mainstream style.

What the others say

"Cassadaga is a Seneca Indian word translating at 'rocks beneath the water'. The Earth motifs and lifting country rock with a taste for danger both harking back to that previous career watermark," NME

"Named after a Florida psychic community, Cassadaga is quietly shadowed by religious matters and could be taken as a subtle assault on America's religious right," the Guardian

So is it any good?

Cassadaga seems to be enveloped in the same mystery that has followed Conor Oberst around during his career. The double album offered you acoustic balladry and electronic strumming, leading to questions over his future direction, but Cassadaga brings it right back to the earlier material which showed Oberst's gift for storytelling and imaginative renderings.

I Must Belong Somewhere assigns everybody a place, from novelists to organs and restless ghosts to old town drunks, but fittingly, where is Bright Eyes' place? Lime Tree is equally questioning, slowly ending in a mournful tone with Oberst showing how emotional, even haunting, his voice can become compared to the cheeky happiness of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.

This album starts of with some kind of psychic self-help line, before moving into the melodious tunes that define this record. Make a Plan to Love Me and Four Winds both epitomise the instantly likeable country rock that makes up the vast chunk of Cassadaga, all perfectly accompanied by Oberst's interesting lyrics.

If the Brakeman Turns My Way is the kind of song that wouldn't look out of place on a recent Dylan album, bringing in novel references to crickets in your mind and empty cabarets. It's certainly an intriguing landscape that Cassadaga constructs, levelling out at times but never dropping below the kind of high standard we have now come to expect from Oberst.

8/10

Karl Pike