On one hand, his latest work is his tightest and most musically proficient to date. On the other hand, it's his least interesting. Pick up his band's brand new album, Cassadaga, if you want evidence – Oberst's latest collection of songs may be his best-crafted and most capable, but it also lacks the emotional depth and immediacy that made his seminal work so compelling. This means that Cassadaga is simultaneously the best and worst Bright Eyes album ever written.
Let's start with the good stuff. Oberst is one of the best American songwriters alive today, and his talents still shine as bright as ever. Cassadaga is, without a doubt, his band's fullest and most confident effort to date. This is partly due to the album's polished production, which nicely complements Bright Eyes' cleaner, tighter sound. For example, the lush orchestral flourishes in ballads such as "Make a Plan to Love Me" and "No One Would Riot for Less" add a pleasant degree of depth and warmth.
Oberst's lyrics are as strong and evocative as they've ever been, even as he moves on from his iconic self-degradation to harsh criticism of both religion and government. Advance single "Four Winds" is unusually and insidiously catchy for a Bright Eyes song, and thus has the potential to win over a throng of new fans.
Bright Eyes - "Four Winds"
In spite of Oberst's clear maturation as a musical craftsman, however, Cassadaga won't please every Bright Eyes fan. Don't pick up the new album with hopes of hearing any of Oberst's signature off-key pleading or compulsive musical indulgences – he's cleaned up his music quite a bit. While Lifted-era Bright Eyes was best played in the lonely seclusion of your high school bedroom, Cassadaga's sultry inoffensiveness could easily find a home in your mother's stereo.
Around the time of I'm Wide Awake, Conor figured out what his limits were, and Cassadaga works well within those boundaries. Before that point, Oberst pushed and strained with overly ambitious ideas that were just beyond his grasp, leading to the fevered, imperfect masterpieces Fevers and Mirrors and Lifted. To many Bright Eyes fans, the pitched failures on these albums only accentuated the brilliant successes and gave Oberst's music a refreshing degree of humanity. Imperfection is inherent to all of us, and Oberst once embraced this fact more than any other popular musician.
Of course, this is exactly why many people never liked Bright Eyes to begin with. His ambitiousness was frequently written off as overwrought pretension, and many found his cracking adolescent yowl endlessly annoying. Those critics will be pleasantly surprised by Cassadaga, as Oberst has shed those aspects of his music. Cassadaga is less a reflection of Oberst's heart and more a reflection of his musicianship.
The ironic thing is that as Oberst gains more confidence in his musical ability, his work loses the neurotic insecurities that earned him his earliest fans. It's depressing to think that at the tender young age of 27, Oberst is already losing his edge.
Nonetheless, Cassadaga is a solid entry in the Bright Eyes discography and has a good chance of winning Oberst even more fans than he had before. Be sure to recommend this album to your mother, but that kid with the black eyeliner has doubtless moved on to the next underground emo sensation.
Originally published for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2007/apr/19/bright-eyes-cleans-up-his-sound-but-loses-his-edge/
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