REVIEW: Bright Eyes - Cassadaga

Bright Eyes, aka Conor Oberst, is nothing if not prolific. Cassadaga is the bands 6th full length album released since 1998. This is even more impressive considering Mr. Oberst just turned 27 earlier this year.The disc opens with an eerie, almost other worldly track called "Clairaudients(Kill or be Killed) in which the band loops phone conversations which seem to be referring to supernatural locations across the country. Backing up the dialouge is what sounds like some sort of haunting,broken orchestral sound...very effective.A beautiful was to start a great album.'Four Winds' takes aim squarely at organized religion. But not just Christianity, Conor is an equal opportunity kind of guy: "The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute. If you burn them all together you get close to the truth." Another excellent track.Skipping past a couple of so/so tracks to the albums next standout, "Make A Plan To Love Me", a gorgeous,fairly straight forward love song. Not as overblown has some of his past songs about lost love, which is almost refreshing. I do believe Conor is evolving as a songwriter."Classic Cars" is my favorite track on the album. This is the kind of storytelling that made me fall in love with Bright Eyes in the first place."She’d talk forever about the phases of the moonSaying, "Everything is a cycle, you’ve got to let it come to youAnd when it does, you will know what to do" Bright Eyes at their best.Conor also called in the cavalry for this album it seems. Guest contributors include Gillian Welch, Ben Kweller, M Ward, Rachael Yamagata, and more.There really isn't a bad track on the album. Some work more than others of course, but considering the number of different directions this disc takes musically it never seems disjointed. It is apparent though that the emotional intensity of Oberst's lyrics are still at the core of Bright Eyes.Even when the songs miss the mark, they are still more interesting than most of what is happening in pop music today.Bright Eyes fans will love this, and if you haven't been a fan over the years, or are unfamiliar with them, this would be a great place to jump in. Here is a live stream of the ablum! Give it a listen and post your own review...i am interested to see what MOG nation thinks!!http://www.saddle-creek.com/streaming/lbj-103/index.html