881 Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (2009)

881 Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (2009)


Studio Album - Alternative Country




About the Act:

Bill Callahan is an American Singer Songwriter who started his career in 1990 under the name "Smog", creating home-recorded tapes of music that was deliberately bad, using bad instruments, bad recording equipment, badly played on badly-tuned guitars. Wikipedia describes it as "experimental". Over the years he got better, and eventually he got a contact and started recording in a studio and releasing under his own name. 


About the Album:

This is Bill Callahan's second album as himself, after 14 albums under the name "Smog".


My History with this Album:

None. I don't think I have heard of him before.


Review:

On my first listen, not paying much attention, I thought of him as a poor man's Leonard Cohen. I put off listening again, but did so this afternoon, listening properly. He won me over. He most especially won me over in the second song with the lyrics:


I fell back asleep some time later on

And I dreamed the perfect song

It held all the answers

Like hands laid on

I woke halfway and scribbled it down

And in the morning what I wrote, I read

It was hard to read at first but here's what it said


Eid ma clack shaw

Zupoven del ba

Mertepy ven seinur

Cofally ragdah


Somebody who can sound like Leonard Cohen, but produce some silliness like this needs some respect, I think. I have looked it up and apparently it is not in a known language. There are people who ascribe all sorts of meaning to it, but I think I get it.


He lost me more in his last song, with many repeats of the line "it's time to put God away". Never mind, I don't have to agree with him. 


He has a low voice, and the backing is pretty simple, generally mellow and slow, so it sounds melancholy. I was reminded not only of Leonard Cohen but also of Nick Cave. The music is fairly OK, mostly awash with strings and some other classical music, and although definitely in-tune, recorded well and played with skill, it is still kind of lo-fi. It is a carpet for the lyrics to stand on, and doesn't sparkle in its own right.


The lyrics, as you have probably picked up, are interesting. Sometimes clear in meaning but often less so, and so I would file him under "enigmatic". He uses a lot of unusual picture language.


The genre is claimed by Wikipedia to be "alternative country" and I'll have to take their word for it, as I'm guessing I wouldn't know alternative country if it slapped me in the face with a banjo. There are no banjos in this music and I might call it "Post-rock" or even "Singer-Songwriter".


All in all, mixed feelings. Some respect, somewhat curious, but potentially dull. Not great background music, and not hugely kid-friendly.


7/10




Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4bKHXqEVmt32YU7u51GIHB

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD5JPcnL768HWBOsZ5evO0cAIkaWTiGv4

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sometimes_I_Wish_We_Were_an_Eagle



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