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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
On their sixth and most straightforwardly clean album, Nebraska's Bright Eyes once again integrate a revolving cast of players to the mix, including Portland tunesmith M. Ward and alt-country queen Gillian Welch. But the band remains at the helm of forever-wunderkind Conor Oberst, and the fruitful songwriter has one-upped 2005's I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning with a proficient and accessible ensemble of expansive pop orchestrations and ornate folk songs that chronicle his traverses across the American panorama. Oberst's voice quakes and wanders through South Dakota lore and Sunshine State chicanery, always the perfect vehicle for his threadbare lyrics. "Take the fruit from the tree/Break the skin with your teeth/Is it bitter or sweet/All depends on your timing," he forewarns in "Cleanse Song," a psychedelic merry-go-round of a soundtrack that joins the Scottish-tinged "Soul Singer in a Session Band" and singalong single "Four Winds" as Cassadaga's finest. The 13-song-record is certain to open more doors for a band whose recognition has soared with every release since Oberst was just 14. --Scott Holter
Review
Conor Oberst is still a very young man. It's worth remembering this as on Bright Eyes' seventh album he seems to have used the psychic community namechecked in the title to channel some very old souls indeed. While lazy journalists like to rank him next to Dylan or Costello, there's more at work here. This is an album that relishes its settings and arrangements as much as its lyrical concerns. Just check the cover! It's more a Gesmantkunstwerk, if you will.
Along with multi-instrumental pals Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott both playing up to ten instruments and a cast of seemingly thousands to bolster this sound, Cassadaga is very much part of that new Americana movement that includes all bands from Lambchop to Wilco via Sufjan Stevens: Self-critical and yet still in love with its heritage and unafraid of using every musical tool inherent in said heritage. Prog Americana.
Oberst also shares Kurt Wagner and Jeff Tweedy's indie lyrical obtuseness which is now lingua franca for all budding commentators of the land of the free. It seems safe to say that a song like 'Four Winds' addresses the wrongness of war in all its guises, but mostly Conor's words seem to use his own experience to nail a particular feeling. It's all so remarkably assured while being as tricky and hidden as the images on this exquisitely packaged album. As mentioned before, this is a young man who sings of creative redundancy in 'Soul Singer In A Session Band' or rehab in 'Cleanse Song'.
But in all this he still has time for good old-fashioned love song. Even if they are essentially thinly-veiled kiss-offs to former girlfriends and lovers such as 'Classic Cars' and 'Make A Plan To Love Me'. Of course, Oberst's gift is the drop-dead melody, here couched in lush country stylings. He could sing the phone book in that mid-western tone and get away with it. It may be a little too parochial for the UK mass market, but it's head and shoulders above those clinging to the old band methodology. Goodness knows how good he'll be when he reaches 30. --Chris Jones
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I had never heard anything by Bright Eyes until over easter, when they did an interview on radio one at something like midnight. They played a stripped down version of 'middleman', and i knew i was hearing something special. the album is no different. Current favourites are 'if the breakman turns my way' and 'hot knives', but each song is a gem. Might need a couple of listens if you are new to them, but their style is something you'll come to know and love. Lyrics are inspired as well, although not as politically driven perhaps as other albums, although there are several strong ideas.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The latest Bright Eyes album is easily one of the finest alt. folk (or whatever brand of Americana you want to label them under) records released this year. In fact, it's their finest effort to date - it's warm, mature and lacking in much of the pretension of their previous efforts.
It's not all about Oberst's quivering delivery and often sharp thought provoking sentiments contained in his words, it's the sheer majesty of the country tinged musicianship (the pedal steel, the riotous percussion, the warm background vocals) and the arrangements that make the songs of `Cassadaga' so accessible and endearing.
2005's releases were, at times, exceptional (especially the more stripped down `I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning') and they certainly suggested that despite the quality of their output to date, there was something quite amazing yet to come from the young Oberst & Co.
`Cassadaga' is more of a sequel to `I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning' as it recalls the flow and atmosphere of the tales within its song cycle. However, as much as it evokes the tuneful element of the aforementioned release, it also delivers on the promises within 2002's sprawling `Lifted, Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground'.
There's the Middle America characters and the political referencing that earned Oberst the `New Bob Dylan' accolades, yet the writing appears to be much more realized (the lyrics aren't just smart, but at times honest). The incredible `Hot Knifes' and the single `Four Winds' carry the recurring themes: religion and truth. In fact, much of the album rotates around the idea that life, like the haven the album is named after, is just that ... an idea (as the lady states amongst the noise of the opener, `Clairaudients': "Cassadaga might be just a premonition of a place you're going to visit").
This is the band's fullest and most developed record yet. Musically and lyrically it's ambitious, and although sometimes the ambition overwhelms its initial impact the intrigue pulls you back in.
Sure, the themes presented can be deemed as `heavy' - as it focuses on the questions around life ... such as our purpose - but `Cassadaga' is quite the opposite, it's a lifting listening experience and appears to be free of the burden of some of their previous records (there's much less anguish on display).
This could quite possibly be Bright Eye's masterpiece ... as important as The Arcade Fire's `Funeral' - in that it highlights that somewhere, among the thousands of generic sounding guitar bands out there, there's real music.
You could find yourself submerged in this album.
It's not all about Oberst's quivering delivery and often sharp thought provoking sentiments contained in his words, it's the sheer majesty of the country tinged musicianship (the pedal steel, the riotous percussion, the warm background vocals) and the arrangements that make the songs of `Cassadaga' so accessible and endearing.
2005's releases were, at times, exceptional (especially the more stripped down `I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning') and they certainly suggested that despite the quality of their output to date, there was something quite amazing yet to come from the young Oberst & Co.
`Cassadaga' is more of a sequel to `I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning' as it recalls the flow and atmosphere of the tales within its song cycle. However, as much as it evokes the tuneful element of the aforementioned release, it also delivers on the promises within 2002's sprawling `Lifted, Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground'.
There's the Middle America characters and the political referencing that earned Oberst the `New Bob Dylan' accolades, yet the writing appears to be much more realized (the lyrics aren't just smart, but at times honest). The incredible `Hot Knifes' and the single `Four Winds' carry the recurring themes: religion and truth. In fact, much of the album rotates around the idea that life, like the haven the album is named after, is just that ... an idea (as the lady states amongst the noise of the opener, `Clairaudients': "Cassadaga might be just a premonition of a place you're going to visit").
This is the band's fullest and most developed record yet. Musically and lyrically it's ambitious, and although sometimes the ambition overwhelms its initial impact the intrigue pulls you back in.
Sure, the themes presented can be deemed as `heavy' - as it focuses on the questions around life ... such as our purpose - but `Cassadaga' is quite the opposite, it's a lifting listening experience and appears to be free of the burden of some of their previous records (there's much less anguish on display).
This could quite possibly be Bright Eye's masterpiece ... as important as The Arcade Fire's `Funeral' - in that it highlights that somewhere, among the thousands of generic sounding guitar bands out there, there's real music.
You could find yourself submerged in this album.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I have enjoyed Conor Oberst's music for a few years and I feel that "Cassadaga" is without question one of his finest collections of songs. Thoughtful and thought provoking and personally I cannot fault this album. Some of the string arrangements and woodwind sections are sublime, there is an alt country feel to some tracks but that should not put anyone off. The more I listen to this album the more rewarding it becomes, I wish that more people were aware that there is still great music being made.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Make a plan to buy this
I've never fully understood why so many Bright Eyes fans leap to criticise the 'over-production' on Cassadaga - it's the overt mysticism which is the real change in Bright Eyes'... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Kate Bradley
Strange Relationship....
I'm interested in how Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst polarises reviewers opinions....I find him intensely annoying and totally compelling at the same time. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. Simon Cade
Heard worse but haven't kept it
I was in places reminded of Al Stewart and his "Year of the cat"-relatively catchy songs until you hear them a few times and then the clean voice and the prententious lyrics hasten... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Gizmophobic
First of several?
This, along with Conor Obersts latest solo offering, is my first venture into the musical world of Bright eyes. Read more
Published on 19 April 2009 by Martyn Smith
Bright Eyes
Cassadaga took me by surprise upon first listening. The once raw stripped down, almost "unplugged" sound of previous Bright Eyes releases was taken away and replaced with a much... Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2008 by Mr. J. C. Hull
The best Bright Eyes album yet?
Conor Oberst's follow-up to 2005's I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning sees him writing and performing what is probably his most clean-sounding, straight forward country/indie/rock album... Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2008 by A. Sweeney
They just keep doing it
Having spent most of last year listening to "I'm wide awake it's morning" I didn;t honestly believe that in Cassadage, Bright Eyes could produce something to the same level. Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2007 by JS
Splendid 6th from Oberst & Co.
The latest Bright Eyes album is easily one of the finest alt. folk (or whatever brand of Americana you want to label them under) records released this year. Read more
Published on 11 Oct 2007 by Jim Skywalker
mind blowing
i own quite a few bright eyes cd's but cassadaga is one of my favourites i'd recommened it to anyone, it takes a few listens and then it hits you, and it's brilliant. Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2007 by becca
A real grower, give it a chance and you will like it
This album is, as the first reviewer said, a real grower. It takes a good few listens before you start to pick out the different instrumental subtleties that run through the album. Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2007 by Scott Mackie
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