Right out of the gate you can tell this album is a bit of a different one. The narrator is far from any other ‘narrated’ albums I can compare to, but not out of the realm of what Bright Eyes has been capable of. Certainly it takes some foundation to do something as brave and pull it off, which of course Oberst has earned with his enormous discography.

With the announcement of the album Oberst claimed to be returning to his emo/indie style of songwriting, and taking a step back from the more americana/country sound that he had begun using. Within the first track it’s difficult to determine if he is living up to his claims. It’s a rather softly textured track, and the vocal melody is closer to his more recent releases. Like all of his releases, the lyrics are the focal point, which can distract from the instrumentation, but when he announced the new album I was excited for the old Bright Eyes that I know and love, and I feared I was being mislead.

“Shell Games” which he streamed prior to release is the second track on the album, which is less on the line of his battling songwriting styles and closer to what I’ll call classic Bright Eyes. The only thing that really threw me off on this track was the synth sound, but that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it. Along with “Shell Games”, “Jejune Stars” follows with an indie pop tone, which again reverts from his country-ish persona, which to be clear, I’m not a huge fan of.

After another short narration, the mood changes on the album and we enter the track “Approximate Sunlight”. I’m having a bit of difficulty correctly relating the narration, which speaks of creation and humanity, to all of the concepts and ideals in the lyrics. (Please offer any publishings or insight on this if you have it.) I guess fully understanding it would ruin finding my own meaning, which other than slight confusion, I’m finding the album to be quite profound. Save for a couple tracks, which I just don’t much care for, this is absolutely a strong effort and return for Bright Eyes.

“Haile Sellassie” is one of the tracks I don’t much care for. It was also released prior to the album, which unfortunately lowered my expectations for the final product. In that regard the album in its entirety was redeeming, and for that, I am thankful. Still not my favorite album of his work, but I’m glad he’s creating new material in a vein I find easier to relate to.

It’s hard to describe the movement of Bright Eye’s growth. Conor Oberst went on to Monsters of Folk, and the Mystic Valley band, which is a stretch to compare to his earlier Bright Eyes material. In one way his songwriting has returned to a similar style of his older work, but at the same time, it has clearly progressed on that track. I almost find I need to write off his other bands as a tangent and pick up where he left off with Cassadaga. If you take that concept, which I decided is what I’m doing, you can look at this album as a more mature follow up to Cassadaga. A must own for any Bright Eyes fan, and a refreshing return to his natural environment.