Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (studio album) by Bill Callahan

From planetneutral 02/11/2018 23:12

Silver Jewsy, at times. Not my least favorite.

From Repo 08/15/2017 11:59

ZEN MASTER CALLAHAN

I started out in search of ordinary things
Like how much a tree bends in the wind… (Jim Cain)

Love is the king of the beasts
And when it gets hungry it must kill to eat (Eid Mad Clack Shaw)

Bill callahan is a naturalist. An observer of life. Like some modern day equivalent of Thoreau hanging out at Walden’s. His observations are both objective and reflective. He’s the observer from without looking within. Not passing judgement. Just observing. Detached. Allowing the world to come to him at its own pace. In its own time. Just simply observing how life is instead of how he wants it to be. Callahan’s easily one of the finest lyricists of the last twenty-some years. Each time I listen to a line from one of his songs it has the ability to take on new meaning. Like the poetry of a zen master, his poetry is endless. Expansive. Taking you deeper & deeper with each reading. Each spin.

And Callahan has also mastered a genre I never would have thought I of all people would even tolerate never mind LOVE - Adult Contemporary! Mind you, this is adult contemporary for FREAKS. And somehow, someway he even one ups the mighty Nick Cave as the best adult contemporary artist of the indie kingdom. Which is saying a shitload because, let’s be honest, Nick Cave invented this genre for pete’s sakes.

And each song offers up many a hidden treasure. Chocked filled with little touches. Little embellishments. For instance, in “Eid Ma Clack Shaw” he occasionally shouts out a “Pow! POW!” as if he’s karate chopping some old Ikea furniture. to bits. (Please do NOT inform me that he’s really just saying “How”. Jeez don’t ruin it for me. That’s not nearly as cool. xp) Or take the drums on “All Thoughts Are Prey.” They start as gently echoes as some hallucinating guitar winds through the song, but then all of sudden at about the one minute mark the drums become maniacal, a beast coming to life, frothing and whipping itself into a fury as the song progresses. Becoming more & more chaotic. Free. And all the songs are tricked out like this. Subtle intricate beauty that slowly reveals and unfolds upon the listener. Seemingly changing with each spin. Yes, these songs are alive. And Callahan’s simply channeling what he feels into these songs. Normally I HATE when an album is embellished with strings and horns and the like. I mean they can sound so fake. So Phony. But not here. Oh No! They’re inventive. Constantly changing as the songs need them to. Unlike so many string arrangement that sound just thrown in as an afterthought by some producer who doesn’t even understand the song nor the artist. No. These arrangements are clearly part of the song themselves. Living, breathing entities that shift and change as the song does. As the song breathes. And just perhaps these are the most tasteful strings ever done for a rock record EVER.

Grade: A+. The finest adult contemporary recording ever recorded. It stands as the gold standard for the entire genre. A touchstone with which to compare similar entities such as Lambchop or Tindersticks and yes even the master himself, Nick Cave. And I seriously thought about vaulting this fully realized album all the way to number ONE. But… Not yet. And so it perches itself like a bird in a tree at number three.

Good album from Bill Callahan. Great songs as always, with, eid ma clack Shaw, my favourite. This is the beginning of predominately acoustic records that Callahan would produce for the foreseeable future. Good stuff though.

From JoaoMoreira 03/25/2014 02:10

It's a good album with some amazingly beautiful songs like Jim Cain or Too Many Birds.
But some others are not as good, they can even be a bit boring.

From Mercury 02/08/2014 03:50

It's alright. I don't know, seemed sorta heavy handed lyrically at times. Musically inconsistent, sometimes really engaging and beautiful or dark and sometimes just plain and kinda forgettable for me. "Jim Cain" is great.

The vocals I'm not a big fan of. But I wouldn't mind it so much if the vocals weren't recorded so up front. I swear his voice just consumes every spare "inch" of space in this album. I can't ignore it.

Honestly, a record from the same year, by an artist with a similar vocal style but a much better voice and lyrics that I feel are just as excellent or better is "Magic" by Sean Rowe.