VidLit Reviews

Cape Canaveral:

A lovely melody to open the record. It’s soothing and makes you smile just a bit when you’re sitting in bed late at night (perhaps writing an album review) as you imagine being rocked to sleep in a rope hammock much like the one on the cover and being sort of at peace with the world because no matter how impossibly huge the universe, no matter how overwhelming the insignificance can seem, we are all parts with different memories and destinies.

“Watch the migrants smoke in the old orange grove and the red rocket blaze over Cape Canaveral. You’ve been a father to me, your 1960’s speak, give me comatose joy like re-run TV, while the mountainside was shining, wild colors of my destiny. I saw your face age backwards, changing shape in my memory. You taught me victory is sweet even deep in the cheap seats.”

Sausalito:
Somewhat similar in musical style to Get-Well-Cards. This song makes you feel the idea of being on the road, driving on a hot desert road until you finally reach the comfort and happiness of a houseboat floating on the blue ocean. The line “where pilgrims disappear” is repeated throughout the song - a very interesting concept, which to me symbolizes an end to wandering when you can finally call somewhere (or someone) your home.

“We should move to Sausalito, living’s easy on a houseboat, let the ocean rock us back and forth to sleep. In the morning with the sunrise, look in the water see the blue sky, as if heaven has been laid there at our feet.”

Get-Well-Cards:
A good choice for an opening song, country-influenced and pretty upbeat. It is also stylistically very sound with more sparsely instrumented verses building up to a louder, rhythmic chorus – showed off the band’s skill and chemistry from the very beginning at the live show. I’ve been listening to it a lot today, and it is definitely one of those songs that tends to stick in your head.

“Right there, that’s the postman sleeping in the sand, he’s got a letter to deliver, but I can’t stay mad. Right there, that’s the postman asleep in the sand, he’s got a get-well-card to deliver, he’s going to do it by hand.”

Lenders in the Temple:
This song reminds me a bit of No One Would Riot For Less, the highlight, in my opinion, of Bright Eyes’ last album, Cassadaga. It’s all about the corruption of power, dishonesty, the hardening of human souls, and how often we forget love is such an easy connection between us all. I guess those sort of ideas are just growing less acceptable in society today. The jingling of coins as the song fades is also brilliant to say the least.

“Not something she’d ever tell except when she got deathly high. Then out it came like summer rain, washed the cars and everything felt clean for just a little while, a telethon we drunk dialed.”

Danny Callahan:
This was one of the songs released early on Conor Oberst’s website, so it is the first I heard of his new material. From his very first intonation of “green world, lovely chloroform” I knew a great new record was going to come out on August fifth. It took a few listens before I realized heard the line about a “bald little boy” and realized it was about a young boy dying of cancer – a topic with the seeming potential to spawn an exploitive or cliché song – but Danny Callahan manages to be upbeat and speak about “the love we feel we carry inside” with unflinching sincerity.

“Stop reading the weather charts. Stop counting the playing cards. There’s no system, there’s no guarantee.”

I Don’t Want to Die (In the Hospital):
A fast-paced country song that had everyone in the crowd dancing and shows Conor’s passionate singing voice - you know when he screams and his voice breaks - I just love that. It seemed to be a bit lacking on Cassadaga. It’s a fun song and conveys Conor’s ironic sense of humor. My favorite part is when he whispers “slow sad song”.

“They don’t let you smoke, and you can’t get drunk. All there is to watch is these soap operas. I don’t want to die in the hospital; you got to take me back outside.”

Eagle on a Pole:
I was excited to hear this song because it stood out to me when I was listening to my newly purchased CD earlier in the day. It contains my favorite line “El cielo es azul; just don’t go telling everyone”. The song is darker in tone than the first three of the set; the simple yet eloquent three line stanzas sung in Conor’s commanding voice inspired a rapt silence in the audience as he picked out the first notes before the rest of the band kicked in. Probably my favorite on the record.

”Heard the fire pop and snap like a tack piano rag. I never could get used to happy sounds. I hope the world is exposed, a cruel and elaborate hoax that convinces me to walk without a cane.”

Moab:
The song on the new album that most literally refers to Conor’s penchant for “traveling songs” and constant movement in his own life. He finds comfort in the assurance that you can always move on from bad situations and find new places filled with hope, the journey itself perhaps the most important part. “There’s nothing that the road can’t heal” just seems to say it all.

“Some would spend their precious time trying to decorate their lives, taking measurements for some new look they want, so from one to ten –ten’s exactly what I am, zero being everything I’m not, tell me what you like. Is it less than five?”