I'm wide awake, it's Sunday morning. Sleepless from cigarette-withdrawal coughing. I'm only cutting down sticks per day and yet I'm hacking to kingdom come."Make a plan to love me sometime soon." Soulful, with swelling strings. Bright Eyes does a Cat Power, all smoky bar cliche. All hung-over sunrise. Just beautiful. I forget to cough.
Maybe, I forget to breathe.
The rest of Cassadaga is folksy blues, distant stories but easily poignant. Sweeping. And surprisingly light-hearted. Oberst rambles above guitars, fiddles, dusty landscapes. Like flipping through postcards until one is warm all over with memories. Memories I don't have but the songs somehow conjured.
Get the album. The melodies are catchy but fleeting. So just continue spinning the record over and over. On quiet, sleepless, Sunday mornings.
3 comments:
Sorry for the messed-up HTML in the last comment. I honestly don't know what causes it, because I preview everything before I post it.
I was in Hong Kong at the end of April with my girlfriend Claire, because we'd already paid for our lodging and plane tickets, when the Pretty Girls Make Graves show was (read: cancelled). More details here, if you're curious --
Far East, Far Out official site
(Yes, I am still bitter. Thanks for asking.)
But anyway, getting to the point: Claire got an orig version of Cassadaga while she was there. And the packaging (which includes a "spectral decoder" for locating hidden messages in the sleeve) *totally* complements the music on the album itself.
Both of us were a little taken aback by how 'mature' it sounds, especially compared to Digital Ash... (which we both prefer to I'm Wide Awake...), but it definitely grew on us, with repeated listens.
You're totally spot-on about the "memories I don't have but the songs somehow conjured"!
Oo nga pala -- do you have a Last.FM account? If so, add me please!
The best part of the album IS the spectral decoder. It has been a great way to waste time and the CD sleeves are getting worn out because I keep showing it to friends. Heh.
No Last.FM account. Will check it out. :-)
And grr about the cancelled PGMG concert. Grr. And arrgh.
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