Thumbnail Review: Bright Eyes' Four Winds

Originally posted Saturday, March 17, 2007

With a perpetual quaver in his voice and a knack for letting his vulnerabilities hang out, Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst has long been the voice of high-intensity confessional pop. But lately, Oberst has been putting down roots in the decidedly chiller soil of old-school blues-rock, and Four Winds, the single to Bright Eyes’ sixth full-length, Cassadaga, shows this side of the band in full bloom.

There are few surprises on this six-song EP, but enough catchy, driven tunes to satisfy confirmed believers, with even a couple tracks to perk up the ears of agnostics. The title song, “Four Winds”, is the obvious hit, a foot-stompingly fun ramble about the end of the world, with swelling strings and a jittery groove that makes the fires of Armageddon feel like kids burning textbooks on the last day of classes. The slow-burner “Smoke Without Fire” finds Oberst trying on a mellower blues with the help of alt country wunderkind M. Ward; the languid vocals and plangent bassline evoke Leonard Cohen at his most gentle and hopeless. It’s as good a proof as any that, at 27, bedroom folk’s poster child is ready to rock with the big boys and cry like a man.