Bright Eyes
Fevers And Mirrors
Saddle Creek
The latest from Conor Oberst seems to take up where the last EP left off. Still brilliant songwriting and heart-tearing vocals playing over perfectly dramatic melodies, but here there seems to be a little more energy, more upbeat. Time, not emotion. The indie rock Leonard Cohen is still getting better, and every song hits closer to the target. Every song leaves a mark. Some of the rhythms start raging like a depressed 764-Hero song, and some of the energy comes across as being angrier. I still hear the power of earlier works but on this album it’s darker, more sarcastic. Still bringing to mind lyricists like Nick Cave, though younger and carrying a stronger lust for life. Dark rocked-out tangos and carnival rides of loss. It rips you apart and pulls you together. It gives you the pain that you remember and ties it up into a song that sets you right back at that point you thought you forgot, and then, smiling, with a quiet drum beat, gives you a hug and a push, and says, “Look… it’ll be alright. We all go through this. The sun is out, dance with me.”
Saddle Creek Records, P.O. Box 8554, Omaha, NE 68108-0554; http://www.saddle-creek.com
