Cassadaga (Bright Eyes)

I remember a couple months ago my father brought this home on CD and showed it to me. He had heard of it but remembered that the cover (and inside) were lenticular screens, and it came with a "spectral decoder," to see what the screens showed. I thought it was really cool, packaging wise, but i didn't listen to the music until a couple months later. Eventually I put it on my Ipod, and decided to put it on while I read a book. I heard the opening notes of Clairuadients, and I was absolutely hooked. As the album progressed throught Four Winds and Make a Plan to Love Me, I was thinking "Holy crap! An album where I like every single song the first time around!" I couldn't put it down. Now normally I absolutely hate country and folk, but as I heard this I was absolutely amazed at the voice, orchestration, and songwriting quality. I didn't even know who Conor Oberst was until a couple months later. Regarding the music, this is an amazing introduction to Conor Oberst, or Brigh... Read more

This album has more of a country feel than the older ones. I was not that into it at first, most musically and lyrically (Which is really Bright Eyes' strong point). ...but I have to say, after awhile, it grew on me. Now I like it quite a bit for background. I must say though that I love it much more than the solo Conor Oberst album.

I would never call myself a huge Bright Eyes fan, but I do enjoy them. I was introduced to them in high school with the song "A Perfect Sonnet" on the Every Day and Every Night EP, leading to me downloading and purchasing several others after that. Conor's emotional and chaotic melodies made every album unique, and I love all the awkward vocalizing and experimental noise running throughout albums like Fevers and Mirrors or Lifted. Then came the two big albums that really hit them off commercially - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. Out of the two, I preferred Digital Ash as it was rawer and more of that experimental noise I loved from Conor's music, but the critics seemed to favor I'm Wide Awake moreso, which to me just sounded like a well-written country album. Don't get me wrong, it's not a dislike of the genre - it seemed more like a return to the old days when the music wasn't cheesy and hokey. There's no "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" on that album.... Read more

Everything about this album is and was true to form: desperate, disillusioned, violent, heartful and heartless. Spines wind on every track as he pours poison over ice and serves it with a dead man's smile and an umbrella on top. I can no longer bear to listen to this record for personal reasons, but I don't regret buying it. Anyone willing to bear witness to the stonings on this record will enjoy the old-fashioned shake-up; pedal steel grips this album in its emotional climax on "No One Would Riot for Less", no less at home than the symphonic cacophany that prologues this riveting album. As Conor Oberst cracks the sternums of religion, government and "war hawks", he does not spare his own. He opens himself on this album as he has on records before, but his vigor compresses a visceral and devastating impact. Behind the ranting and cracking of death rattles, the broken brilliance of Coner Oberst retains a bit of a quiet young man who still hasn't completely convinced himself that "... Read more

If you really listen to this album, it's still Bright Eyes, it's still Conor Oberst, just polished to a high luster. The combination of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nate Wolcott is just magic. The entire collection is worth it just for the song "If the Brakeman Turns My Way". I will admit the beginning of the album is better than the ending, when the songs got kind of dark, but hey, it's Bright Eyes! It's still the same music, just showing more maturity and finesse, and in my eyes rates in his top 3 works--Lifted, Wide Awake and Cassadaga. You'll always get a surprise from Bright Eyes (think Digital Ash).