BRIGHT EYES
Cassadega
Saddle Creek
· No direction home.
I’ve always been curious as to just how much Conor Oberst buys into his own hype. As the founder and driving force behind Saddle Creek records, Bright Eyes’s press releases and promotional materials have long included mention of Oberst’s place as the new Bob Dylan, the finest songwriter of his generation. That’s not to suggest Oberst is writing his own promo bios, but it’s his company. The guy’s got to have at least some say in what goes out, and from the outset of opener "Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed)," Cassadega is an epic-minded record by someone out to save the world. Whether or not perfection’s in his grasp, however, is a different story.
"Clairaudients" does more than merely introduce the record – it reveals Oberst’s new method of operation, scratchy religious-minded interview chatter over thundering drums and orchestral swells borrowed straight from the Beatles "A Day in the Life." "Make a Plan to Love Me" verges on Hallmark territory, with girls in the background cooing the title’s conceit. As big and beautiful as it is, Cassadega suffers in the same way Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible does in setting its sights too far outwards and too far away from what made both groups so intriguing in the first place. Oberst’s best revelations come whispered in one’s ear, not with political revolution in mind.
There’s always been something to love or hate in Oberst’s circus. Cassadega makes it clear that "the new Bob Dylan" is still yet to be found (one might even ask what’s so wrong with the old one), and given the heights of both Lifted and I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning (offering a perfect foil in the beautiful creak of Emmylou Harris), one can’t really help but be disappointed.
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