Bright Eyes – Cassadaga

2007, Saddle Creek

Although it fails to live up to the successes of I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, Bright Eyes‘ latest, Cassadaga, is not a bad work on its own.

The record starts off with the obligatory spoken-word intro; this time it’s a woman on a telephone and a rising wall of strings that set a tone for the rest of the record.

The next couple of songs are quite good: “Four Winds” (previously released on the EP of the same name) is a great country-influenced tune, “If The Brakeman Turns My Way” is a piano ballad with lyrics that alternate between insightful and painfully obvious, and “Hot Knives” has accessible hooks and a distorted guitar sound that drops out occasionally to allow Oberst’s voice and the acoustic background to shine through.

That’s where Cassadaga should end, though. The remaining tracks (with the exception of “I Must Belong Somewhere”) are overproduced and uninspired, and often contain cheesy background vocals.

It’d be wrong to not look forward to the next Bright Eyes release—Oberst has clearly not run out of ideas—but Cassadaga leaves a lot to be desired.