Bright Eyes - 'Cassadaga'

Being a Bright Eyes fan, and by association a Conor Oberst fan, is kind of like standing next to a pendulum. In one swing, everything is fine, but then the next swing comes back and hits you right in the nards. I first became an Oberst fan around the time of the release of his second album, Fevers and Mirrors. The record’s collection of psychedelic folk and meta-self-conscious/self-lacerating, angst-filled lyrics grabbed my attention right away, so much so that I actually purchased the album on the strength of the lyrics alone without having heard a single note of the songs.

But the pendulum swung back and hit me with the release of Bright Eyes’ next album, the excruciatingly long (both in song durations and name) Lifted, Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground, which was a painful, melodramatic failure in songwriting. Bloated and stupid, Lifted saw Oberst’s lyricism hit levels of lameness not even poetry-writing 10th graders dared to tread.

Things have been back-and-forth since then. The double release of I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn yielded two good albums. But then Oberst decided to become a sloppy, public drug addict, acting like a jerk to many. He even went so far as to drunkenly mock the crap out of legendary U.K. DJ John Peel right after his passing. Also, he gave my Aunt Janet the “bad touch” at the “Vote for Change” tour with Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. True story.

Oberst’s rampant public self-destruction and all-out jerkery was enough to turn me off as a listener, as I skipped out on his rarities compilation, Noise Floor. But then, I found a surprise — the new Bright Eyes single “Four Winds.” The video, and its accompanying promotional EP, was a refreshing burst of verbosely folky fervor. I was hooked again.

The “Four Winds” EP, released in March, was a great promotional device for Oberst’s full length Cassadaga. While only the EP’s title track was to be featured on Cassadaga, the accompanying five tracks were all brilliant and diverse, showcasing a firm, delightful grasp of rock and/or roll and folk.

If the throwaway tracks of The “Four Winds” EP could be so good, surely Cassadaga’s content would be stunning. On top of that, Oberst had cleaned up his act, abandoning alcohol for… whatever sober people drink. Milk, maybe. Perhaps lots of water.

After quite a bit of anticipation, Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga was released last week, and it is neither good nor bad. It is simply mediocre, especially in its middle.

The opening song, “Clairaudients (Kill Or Be Killed),” begins with a series of audio clips, a Bright Eyes trademark. It’s a little by-the-numbers for Oberst. The album really hits the listener, though, with track two, “Four Winds.”

Built around a sweet mandolin hook, “Four Winds” is one of the few rollicking tracks on Cassadaga. Musically, it’s a solid country rocker. Lyrically, Oberst picks up some of the social incisiveness of previous songs like “Road to Joy” and “When the President Talks to God.” This time, the guy takes aim at organized religion, singing, “The Bible’s blind, the Torah is deaf, the Qu’ran is mute/If you burned them all together you’d get close to the truth.”

The album gets more country-oriented on track three, “If the Brakeman Turns My Way.” The style may turn off fans more accustomed to Lifted’s orchestral indie/folk, but the song is still awfully catchy in a Bob Dylan-ish sort of way. The following song, “Hot Knives,” is just as infectious. But then comes the first snag: “Make a Plan to Love Me.”

“Make a Plan to Love Me” isn’t just boring, it’s ridiculously sappy. A love song, Oberst, backed by the DuPree sisters from Eisley, delivers a series of awful, banal sentiments. Sample lyric: “Do what you feel/Whatever is cool/But I just have to ask/Will you make a plan to love me?”

The malaise of “Make a Plan to Love Me” carries over a few tracks. “Soul Singer in a Session Band” isn’t really all that soulful, “Classic Cars” stalls and “Middleman” is middling.

Cassadaga starts to reengage around track nine, “Cleanse Song.” It’s an autobiography of sorts about Oberst’s attempts to kick the habit, and it has to be one of the catchiest songs about detox ever written. But it proves to be an island in a sea of mediocrity.

“No One Would Riot For Less” is another dull love song. On top of that, it kind of apes the horn section from Morning’s “Old Soul Song (For The New World Order)” just a tad too much. Meanwhile, “Coat Check Dream Song” is certainly dreamy, but that’s partially because it will put the listener to sleep.

There’s one last good track on Cassadaga, and it’s “I Must Belong Somewhere.” It’s a slow building country tune, but even its quiet intro is far more energetic than many of the songs preceding it. The tune finds Oberst renouncing just about everything in his possession, from his house to his guitar. By this point in the album, he’s dealt with his addictions; now he’s just trying to find a place to hang. It’s an admirable quest, made even more endearing by Oberst’s forceful, determined emphasis on the line “Everything it must belong somewhere.” He needs to believe it, for his own sake.

“Lime Tree” closes out the album. It’s really depressing, partially because it’s a sad song, and partially because it’s badly written and arranged.

So, there it is, a track-by-track breakdown of the new Bright Eyes album. Of the 13 songs on Cassadaga, there are five good ones, one OK one and a whole lot of filler. But maybe that’s sort of the point. Cassadaga’s lyrics read like a step-by-step account of what rehab is like, and I’m told that it’s a thoroughly depressing process. On the plus side, though, the album comes with a decoder for finding hidden images on the album’s artwork. So, that’s kind of cool.