Much significance has been attached to Bright Eyes mainman Conor Oberst’s past live shows. Having built an early reputation as a spellbinding performer, his gigs became hit and miss affairs, veering from the spectacular to the barely coherent. By 2005, having been hailed as a genius for longer than he could care to remember, Oberst’s erratic wilfulness suggested that, like a spoiled child, he was losing his knack – his will, even – to please his fans.
Worn out by it all, he cancelled 2006, stopped touring and took time to mull things over. As ‘Cassadaga’ shows, the bigger picture (death, war, climate change – all the bad stuff) quickly came into sharp focus and Oberst’s self-regarding ways vanished as he faced up to the same reality as the rest of us. Eventually, what had become a truculent talent bloomed, once again, into an endearing and sympathetic one.
Low on self-pity, Oberst’s sixth album sees him channel all of his frustrations and fragility, his musings on mortality and politics, into something built to uplift us while exposing our fatal flaws. After the stripped-back acoustic songs and electronica of 2005’s twin albums, Oberst and permanent members Nate Walcott and Mike Mogis have returned Bright Eyes to the sparse-then-tipsily-boisterous Americana that took 2002’s ‘Lifted…’ to such a wide audience. The usual suspects (Gram Parsons, Dylan, Springsteen) rear their heads in the organ-led ‘If The Brakeman Turns My Way’ and the jowly, heart-on-sleeve anthem ‘Classic Cars’, but they’re cruising alongside sweet girl group harmonies in an unexpectedly buoyant mix. But whatever references spring to mind, they don’t capture the lingering magic that suggests Oberst’s (youthful) wisdom has made him happier, more empowered even, than he’s been in some time.
‘Cassadaga’’s closest contemporary is ‘The Greatest’ by Cat Power – a record from a similarly troubled and sensitive soul, that saw its creator escaping pressure and flying free. Now Oberst seems to have resolved his own internal rebellion, chances are he will enjoy the same level of acceptance.
