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| Bright Eyes - Four Winds EP | Bright Eyes - Four Winds EP
Record Label: Saddle Creek Records
Also He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Come from the FOUR WINDS, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."'"
Ezek. 37:
I don’t know if the connection between this Biblical passage and Bright Eyes’ latest EP were intentional or not, but it was made by me nonetheless. The way the story goes is that this Ezekiel dude is having visions about the future. This particular vision entails God calling the “four winds” to breathe life into a bunch of corpses and raise them from the dead. It’s a prediction of the restoration of Israel or something like that (I’ve never been the best at this whole “interpreting the Bible” thing). Before I get too sacrilegious here, let me make it clear I’m not saying that Conor Oberst is some musical god breathing life into the corpses of the youth today via his heavenly vocal cords. Although, many people do seem to worship the ground he walks on – “child genious” this, “next Bob Dylan” that, yadda, yadda, yadda. So, let’s not call him a god or anything. Instead, let’s just say he writes some wicked tunes and the Four Winds EP provides nothing less.
If you’re a Bright Eyes fan, then you were probably curious to know what direction the music was headed following the simultaneous release of the two drastically different albums: I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash In A Digital Urn. Well, if the opening, title track is any indicator; the new sound is a little bit of both, but leaning more towards the Wide Awake side. “Four Winds” is a full-band, bluesy, country-style song chock full of fiddles, drums, acoustic guitars, and harmonicas. Permanent members, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott really make themselves known on this track. And what about Oberst’s legendary prose? Sensational. Seriously, any artist who can combine Neil Young, The Bible, the Middle East, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran., W.B. Yeats, and “Great Satan” (America) deserves a great deal of praise. His description of a Mexican girl with the four winds blowing through her hair paints a vivid scene in the mind. This is the only song that makes the jump from the EP to Cassadega.
“Four Winds” is easily the best song on the EP, but the others are no slouches either. The songs consist of Elliot Smith tributes (“Reinvent The Wheel”), M. Ward collaborations (“Smoke Without Fire”), and plenty of banjo, harmonica and honky-tonk. In “Tourist Trap”, there’s even some random bloke in the background whistlin’ away. Yeehaw!! They’re pretty good, but it’s apparent why one or two aren’t good enough to make the Cassadaga cut.
The Four Winds EP shows that Conor is finally starting to mature. He’s not a adolescent protégé any more after all. He’s older than Dylan was when he released Bringing It All Back Home. And, he’s no god either. He just writes some solid tunes. |
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09:39 PM on 10/09/09 | it was a dark and stormy lucabomb so how does this indicate a progression from digital ash at all? | | |
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