Bright Eyes - Four Winds

It’s not that I hate Conor Oberst. It’s just that I envy him. At the tender age of 27, his talents are well documented and his praises are equally renowned. When you start dealing with emotions like this, you then begin to look for additional reasons not to like him: privileged upbringing, a well organized scene to pull talent from, a tendency to overload each song with excessive arrangements and compulsive word-play. None of this, of course, are legitimate reasons to fault the kid and none of this has any bearing on how gifted he is.
Four Winds is a “teaser” e.p. that prefaces the full-length Cassadaga scheduled to be released next month. The title track, a fine fiddle-tinged country rock romp, represents the first single from that album while the remaining five tracks collect outtakes from the recording sessions. That also means that “Four Winds” is, indeed, the best thing on this e.p.
And you probably know that Oberst’s leftovers are better than most artists’ main course.
It’s a relief, however, to admit that none of the tracks here demonstrate any evidence of genius or artistic brilliance, title track included. There’s better examples in his cannon that will surely knock your socks of but, with that being said, Four Winds won’t prevent you from seeking them out either.
Taking any release that fills the majority of its track listings with outtakes presents its own grain of salt, for sure, but I count two of them (“Smoke Without Fire,” “Stray Dog Freedom”) that would be worthy enough for a “real” effort.
“Smoke Without Fire,” a heavily reverbed ballad, benefits with some excellent guest work from M. Ward and right around the moment you realize how great the track is, it ends.
“Stray Dog Freedom” presents Oberst and company in Wilco country-rock territory, and while it doesn’t sound as genuine as the reference, it’s a pleasurable exercise nonetheless with a nice Neil Young inspired guitar solo.
The remaining three tracks (“Reinvent The Wheel,” “Cartoon Blues” and “Tourist Trap”) sound like outtakes and won’t make converts out of the new arrivals or satisfy the long-standing supporters.
One surprise is how poorly sequenced the e.p. is. While the six tracks of Four Winds are fairly independent of each other musically, and considering that you have to have the “single” tracked out of the gate, it doesn’t make sense how they came up with the running order for the remaining five. I suppose it’s fairly irrelevant nowadays anyway, as most kids don’t concern themselves with track sequencing, choosing to hit “shuffle” on their portable players instead.
I think Oberst knows that his accolades contribute to a certain degree of dissention among music fans like himself. In the video for “Four Winds,” he plays on a stage in front of a silent crowd before they start to boo and throw objects at him while he performs. His astute observation of how he’s perceived doesn’t help much with my own envy. Like his songs, the video is pretty awesome too.