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Cassadaga (Remastered)

by Bright Eyes

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Wolfwatching Music
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Wolfwatching Music Probably Bright Eyes most lush album, with a kitchen sink full of instruments. It feels like sweeping over a continent in some ways, you're traveling to a special place called Cassadaga. It was the first album by them I checked out during a first low time in my life, and so I always enjoy it. If anything it's gotten better over the years. Favourite track: Middleman.
Sven B. Schreiber (sbs)
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Sven B. Schreiber (sbs) While commenting on Christian Lee Hutson's latest album "Beginners" and adding a couple of references to Conor Oberst and Nate Walcott, I thought it was time to purchase another "Bright Eyes" album. As usual, it sounds different from the other ones I've bought so far, and that's great - I just love diversity in music. "Four Walls" can be streamed here only - probably because it was a hit single. However, rest assured that the other tracks are even better! Favorite track: No One Would Riot for Less.
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1.
Corporate or Colonial The Movement is unstoppable Like the body of a centerfold it spreads To the counter-culture copyright Get your revolution at a lower price Or make believe and throw the fight, play dead It’s exploding bags, aerosol cans Southbound buses, Peter Pan They left it up to us again I thought you knew the drill It’s kill or be killed Future Markets, Holy Wars Been tried ten thousand times before If you think that God is keeping score, Hooray! For the freedom-fighting simulcast (Victory! A defeat! Victory!) The imminent and the aftermath Draw another bloody bath to drain Like the polar icecaps centrifuge (Oh Allah! Oh Jesus please!) First snowman built at the end of June He slicks his hair for the interview, his fifteen-minute fame Would you agree times have changed?
2.
Four Winds 04:16
Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe There are people always dying trying to keep them alive There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight in an abandoned building Where the squatters made a mural of a Mexican girl With fifteen cans of spray paint in a chemical swirl She is standing in the ashes at the end of the world Four Winds blowing through her hair When Great Satan is gone... the Whore of Babylon... She just can’t sustain the pressure where it’s placed She caves The Bible is blind. The Torah is deaf. The Qur’an is mute. If you burned them all together you’d get close to the truth But still they are pouring over Sanskrit under Ivy League moons While shadows lengthen in the sun Cast on a school of meditation built to soften the times And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds It’s knocking over fences crossing property lines Four Winds cry until it comes It’s the Sum of Man slouching towards Bethlehem A heart just can’t contain all of that empty space It breaks. It breaks. It breaks. So I went back by rented Cadillac and company jet Like a newly orphaned refugee retracing my steps All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead They said, you’d better look alive Now it’s off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps In the Black Hills, the Badlands, the calloused East I buried my ballast. I made my peace. Heard Four Winds leveling the pines When Great Satan is gone... the Whore of Babylon... She just can’t remain with all that outer space She breaks. She breaks. She caves. She caves.
3.
When panic grips your body and your heart is a hummingbird Raven thoughts blacken your mind until you’re breathing in reverse All your friends and sedatives mean well but make it worse Every reassurance just magnifies the doubt Better find yourself a place to level out Got a cricket for a conscience always looks the other way A cocaine soul starts seeming like an empty cabaret Hey, where have all the dancers gone? Now the music doesn’t play Tried to listen to the river but you couldn’t shut your mouth Better take a little time to level out I never thought of running My feet just led the way Mixed up Signals Bullet Train Cars are switched out in the crazy rain I could meet you any place If the Brakeman turns my way All this automatic writing I have tried to understand From a psychedelic angel who was tugging on my hand It’s an infinite coincidence but it doesn’t form a plan So I’m headed for New England or the Paris of the South Gonna find myself somewhere to level out Are your brothels full, Oh Babylon, with merry Middlemen? Never peer out of their periscopes from those deep opium dens All this death must need a counterweight always someone born again First a mother bathes her child then the other way around The Scales always find a way to level out I tried to pass for nothing But my dreams gave me away Mixed up signals Bullet Train People snuffed out in the brutal rain I could live to any age If the Brakeman turns my way It is an old world it’s hard to remember Like a dime store mystery I’m a repeat first time offender Who has rewritten history Mixed up tea leaves Phantom pain Fuzzy logic in the crazy rain Getting better every day If the Brakeman turns my way Mixed up signals Bullet Train Cars are switched out in the blinding rain He’ll be smiling as he seals my fate When the Brakeman turns my way
4.
Hot Knives 04:13
The Wife forgave the Mistress for she only entertained The pain was gone the instant she cleared her throat to speak her name Said, “Both of us must suffer from this same unending ache” The world was not of interest though her days were never dull Her bed beneath a crucifix on guests performing miracles With the Son of God just hanging like a common criminal When I do wrong I am with God, she thought When I feel lost I am not at all So give me Black Light (Give Give me) So give me Hot Knives (Deep Clean sleep) On a dance floor no one tells time (There is no time) Oh, I’ve made love, yeah, I’ve been fucked, so what? I’m a cartoon, you’re a full moon, let’s stay up She went to see a Mystic who made medicine from rain And gave up her existence to feel everything, dream others’ dreams Bid farewell to her family with one ecstatic wave (Please take care I love you all) Out the window as the car rolled away She just vanished into a thick mist of change So let us rejoice (Let’s Rejoice!) In all this Pink Noise (Our Pink Noise!) An oscillation that we can pin point (We’re right here!)
5.
I heard you’re scheming new pyramids Another big idea to get you rich Make a plan to love me sometime soon You said you had your foot in the door You buy and then you sell, you buy some more Make a plan to love me sometime soon Life is too short Death doesn’t ask It don’t owe you that Some things you lose You don’t get back So just know what you have And make a plan to love me sometime soon First you want to ride off into the Sun Then you want to shoot straight to the Moon Make a plan to love me sometime soon When you are young the world is a Ferris Wheel I know we will grow old it is lovely, still Make a plan to love me sometime soon Life is Too $hort To be a fool I don’t owe you that Do what you feel Whatever is cool But I just have to ask Will you make a plan to love me? Will you make a plan to love me? Will you make a plan to love me sometime soon?
6.
See the Soul Singer in the session band Shredded to ribbons beneath a microphone stand Felt the quickness of pity like a flash in a pan For the Soul Singer in the session band A red carpet bagger makes a Blackberry call To the plastic piranhas in the city of salt Wasted wheat paste campaign post no bills on the wall You mean nothing to no one but that is nobody’s fault See the Soul Singer in the session band Shredded to ribbons beneath a microphone stand Felt the quickness of pity like a flash in a pan For the Soul Singer in the session band I had a lengthy discussion about The Power of Myth With a post-modern author who didn’t exist In this fictitious world all reality twists I was a hopeless romantic now I’m just turning tricks Just like that Soul Singer in the session band Shredded confetti beneath a microphone stand Saw the Conflict of Interest slipping cash in the hand Of the Soul Singer in the session band His room is on fire since he painted it red There are a stranger’s silk sequins at the foot of the bed He has been to weddings and funerals but he still never wept Now sorrow is pleasure when you want it instead Just like the Soul Singer in the session band Wailed like an infant atop a white baby grand We’ll need every sand bag and every man To save the Soul Singer in the session band Headlights or Taillights it’s a flip of a coin I have been coming and going since the day I was born And I followed the breadcrumbs but I never got home I grew old in an instant now I am all on my own Just like that Soul Singer in the session band Shredded to nothing beneath a microphone stand Saw the wave of the future through the crack in the dam Drown the Soul Singer in the session band Bless the Soul singer in the session band
7.
Classic Cars 04:19
She was a real royal lady, true patron of the arts She said the best country singers die in the back of classic cars So if I ever got too hungry for a suitcase or guitar To think of them all alone in the dark So I laid some nights beside her in a bed made for a queen She said I kissed her different, that all the men her age were mean Gave me anything I wanted, Oh the generosity I took all that I could, it was free Now the sky is a torn up denim and the clouds are just splattered paint It’s a room I’m renovating; it’s a name I got to change If I get out of California I’m going back to my home state To tell them all that I made a mistake And I keep looking for that blindfold faith Lighting candles to a cynical saint Who wants the last laugh at the fly trapped in the windowsill tape You can go right out of your mind trying to escape From the panicked paradox of day to day If you can’t understand something then it’s best to be afraid The whole world it loves you if you are a chic chameleon Intersecting circles she could hang with anyone But when conducting business she would lie about where she’s from Saying, life is how it is not how it was I learned to listen felt like I was back at school She’d talk forever about the phases of the moon Saying, everything is a cycle, you’ve got to let it come to you And when it does you will know what to do Without even knowing I guess I took up her advice Painted her front door it seemed a suitable goodbye It’s not that often but I think of her sometimes Just something quaint, a couple ships in the night And they keep moving at a glacial pace Turning circles in a memory maze I made a new cast of the death mask that is gonna cover my face I had to change the combination to the safe Hide it all behind a wall let people wait And never trust a heart that is so bent it can’t break
8.
Middleman 04:49
I traveled through the atmosphere as a wall of feedback climbed The pegs were gold, the band was old, they played in half time Now every dream gets whittled down just like every fool gets wise You will never reap of any seed deprived of sunlight So I have become the Middleman The gray areas are mine The in-between, the absentee Is a beautiful disguise So I keep my footlights shining bright just like I keep my exits wide ‘Cause I never know when it’s time to go, it’s too crowded now inside The dead can hide beneath the ground and the birds can always fly But the rest of us do what we must in constant compromise So I have become the Middleman The gray areas are fine The ‘I don’t know’, the ‘maybe so’ Is the only real reply It is the only true reply
9.
Cleanse Song 03:28
Hear the chimes, did you know that the wind when it blows It is older than Rome and all of this sorrow See the new pyramids down in old Manhattan From the roof of a friend’s I watched an empire ending Heard loud and long the river’s Om Time marching on to a madman’s drum Don’t forget what you’ve learned all you give is returned And if life seems absurd what you need is some laughter And a season to sleep and a place to get clean Maybe Los Angeles, somewhere no one is expecting On a detox walk through a Glendale park over sidewalk chalk Someone wrote in red, ‘start over’ So I muffled my scream on an Oxnard beach Full of fever dreams that scare you sober Into saltless dinners Take the fruit from the tree, break the skin with your teeth Is it bitter or sweet? All depends on your timing Like a meeting of chance with a train station glance Many lifetimes had past in an instant reminded Of a millstone house in a seaside town When your heart gave out in a mission bed So your wife gave birth to a funeral dirge As you woke up purged as a wailing infant In Krung Thep, Thailand Hear the chimes, did you know that the wind when it blows It is older than Rome and our joy and our sorrow
10.
Death may come invisible or in a holy wall of fire In the breath between the markers on some black I-80 mile From the madness of the governments to the vengeance of the sea Everything is eclipsed by the shape of destiny So love me now Hell is coming Kiss my mouth Hell is here Little soldier, little insect, you know war it has no heart It will kill you in the sunshine or happily in the dark Where kindness is a card game or a bent up cigarette In the trenches, in the hard rain, with a bullet and a bet He says, help me out Hell is coming Could you do it now? Hell is here See the sterile soil, Poisoned sky Yellow water, Final scraps of light Bringing new tears Wake, Baby, wake but leave that blanket around you there is nowhere as safe I’m leaving this place but there is nothing I’m planning to take Just you Just you
11.
Shrill as a choir of children Urgent like the first day of May False and inflatable feeling Tugs at my senses, big as the Macy’s Parade One brick on top of another Such is the measure of man Planets are inset like diamonds On a gravity halo, eternity’s wedding band I slept with that dealer all summer The ecstasy is still in my spine Coat Check I couldn’t remember Walked into the winter, came out on the other side In the South the sun is shining Back in the East the lights went out Stuck on a ladder to heaven On trial way back in The Hague Lullaby sounds from the engine In my Styrofoam coffin, asleep on the interstate Black globes, old symbols of freedom A murderer still on the lam Cities encircled in iron On a great silver beltway, democracy’s shackled hands Séance that brought us together Objects we move with our minds Coat Check and I lost the number Short sleeves in the winter, fell back through the other side Out in the West the cars are crashing Up in the North the ice gave out Saada Tekmel B’Lhouria… Houria...
12.
Leave the bright blue door on the whitewashed wall Leave the death ledger under city hall Leave the joyful air in that rubber ball today Leave the lilac print on the linen sheet Leave the bird you killed at your father’s feet Let the sideways rain in the crooked street remain Leave the whimpering dog in his cold kennel Leave the dead starlet on her pedestal Leave the acid kids in their green fishbowls today Leave the sad guitar in its hardshell case Leave that worried look on your lover’s face Let the orange embers in the fireplace remain Everything it must belong somewhere A train off in the distance, bicycle chained to the stairs Everything it must belong somewhere I know that now, that is why I’m staying here Leave the ocean’s roar in the turquoise shell Leave the widower in his private hell Leave the liberty in that broken bell today Leave the epic poem on its yellowed page Leave the gray macaw in its covered cage Let the traveling band on the interstate remain Everything it must belong somewhere Sound stage in California, televisions in Times Square Everything it must belong somewhere I know that now that is why I’m staying here Yeah, I know that now, that is why I’m staying here Leave the secret talks on the trundle bed Leave the garden tools in that rusted shed Leave those bad ideas in your troubled head today Leave the restless ghost in his old hotel Leave the homeless man out in that cardboard cell Let the painted horse on the carousel remain Everything it must belong somewhere Just like the gold around her finger or the silver in his hair Everything it must belong somewhere I know that now, that is why I’m staying here I know that now, that is why I’m staying here In truth the forest hears each sound Each blade of grass as it lies down The world requires no audience No witnesses, no witnesses Leave the old town drunk on his wooden stool Leave the autumn leaves in their swimming pool Leave the poor black child in his crumbling school today Leave the novelist in his daydream tomb Leave the scientist in her Rubik’s cube Let the true genius in the padded room remain Leave the horse’s hair on that slanted bow Leave the slot machines on the riverboat Leave the cauliflower in the casserole today Leave the hot bright trash in the shopping malls Leave the hawks of war in their capitals Let the organ’s moan in the cathedral remain Everything it must belong somewhere They locked the Devil in the basement, threw God up into the air Everything it must belong somewhere You know it’s true, I wish you’d leave me here You know it’s true, why don’t you leave me here?
13.
Lime Tree 05:53
I keep floating down the river but the ocean never comes Since the operation I heard you’re breathing just for one Now everything is imaginary, especially what you love You left another message said it’s done, It’s done When I hear beautiful music it’s always from another time Old friends I never visit, I remember what they’re like Standing on a doorstep full of nervous butterflies Waiting to be asked to come inside Just come inside But I keep going out I can’t sleep next to a stranger when I’m coming down It’s 8 a.m. my heart is beating too loud Too loud Don’t be so amazing or I’ll miss you too much I felt something that I had never touched Everything gets smaller now the further that I go Towards the mouth and the reunion of the Known and the Unknown Consider yourself lucky if you think of it as home You can move mountains with your misery if you don’t If you don’t It comes to me in fragments, even those still split in two Under the eaves of that old Lime Tree I stood examining the fruit Some were ripe and some were rotten, I felt nauseous with the truth There will never be a time more opportune So I just won’t be late The window closes, shock rolls over in a tidal wave And all the color drains out of the frame So pleased with a daydream that now living is no good I took off my shoes and walked into the woods I felt lost and found with every step I took

credits

released November 11, 2016

Remastered by Bob Ludwig. Originally released 2007.

------

Bright Eyes is Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott.

All songs recorded by Mike Mogis. All songs mixed by Mike Mogis.

Hassan Lemtouni’s vocals recorded by Louis Schefano (thanks).

Assistant engineers: Rudyerd Lee Cullers (Stratosphere Sound),
Mike Laza (The Boat), Ian Aeillo (Presto!, ARC Studios), Paul Smith
(Capitol Studios), and John McEntire (Soma)

Orchestra contracted by Suzie Katayama.

All songs written by Conor Oberst, Sony/ATV Sounds LLC/Bedrooms; Bedrooms and Spiders (BMI), except “If the Brakeman Turns My Way” by Conor Oberst and Jason Boesel, BB Lindstrom (BMI), and “Coat Check Dream Song” by Conor Oberst and Nate Walcott, N. Walcott Music (ASCAP).

Booking by Eric Dimenstein (Ground Control Touring)
& Steve Strange (X-Ray Touring Limited).

Management by Juan Carrera and Nate Krenkel (Ravenhouse, Ltd).

Artwork and design by Zack Nipper.
Focal Decoder by www.3Dimages.co.uk, patent no. 2315240

Bright Eyes Gives 1,000,000 Thank Yous to: All the wonderful musicians who played on this record for your time, talent and friendship -- we could not have done this without you. Jessica, Stella, Maria, Stefanie, Ian, Clare and all our families for their love and support. Bill Sullivan, Simon Wring, Sean Foley, Jacob Feinberg, and all those who have been part of our traveling family at one point or another. Eric Dimenstein, Juan Carrera, Nate Krenkel, Darin Harmon, Matthew Kaplan, Matt Oberst, Chloe Walsh for your technical support and love. Robb Nansel and everyone at Saddle Creek. Luke Wood, David Joseph and all at Polydor, Mark Bowen, Rick Rubin, Andy LeMaster, Jenny Lewis, Jason Boesel, Ian Aeillo, Ted Stevens, Butch Hogan, Nick Zinner, Tim Kasher, Matt Maginn, Zack Nipper, Simon Joyner, Todd and Orenda, Gill and Dave, Phil Lea, Taylor family and YOU for listening to this record (if that’s what you’re doing).

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Bright Eyes Omaha, Nebraska

Bright Eyes are the Omaha, Nebraska based band consisting of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nathaniel Walcott.

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