Bright Eyes - Cassadaga (New CD)

A swirling, euphonious record, at times bursting with bombastic confidence and country swagger, and at others loose-limbed and mesmeric. If I'm WIDE AWAKE.. was the "New York City album", then CASSADAGA is "the America album", in which Colin Oberst chronicles his travels around the country and articulates his sense of history in the landscape. Oberst's impassioned prose is still recognizable in every track, but the songs are rich with elaborate production, cinema-sized orchestration, and at times, sprawling, almost psychedelic atmospherics.