Four Stars For "Four Winds"

It's been a busy couple of years for Bright Eyes. Originally consisting of singer-songwriter Conor Oberst and a revolving lineup of musicians, Bright Eyes has expanded to permanently include Mike Mogis, a longtime producer and multi-instrumentalist, and Nate Wolcott, also a longtime collaborator. The revolving lineup commonly associated with the band will also remain intact. These two additions served to expand the once-solitary vision commonly attributed to Bright Eyes.

While recording the follow-up to the simultaneous releases "Digital Ash In A Digital Urn" and "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning," a live album ("Motion Sickness") and a collection of b-sides and rarities ("Noise Floor: 1998-2005") were released in 2006 to quell the wait for new material. "Four Winds EP" serves as the final release to help assuage the wait for Bright Eyes' newest release "Cassadaga."

The significance of all these releases is that "Digital Ash" and "I'm Wide Awake" were released in 2005, making "Four Winds EP" their fifth release in two years, with "Cassadaga" eventually being the sixth. With the smattering of all these releases, will "Cassadaga" live up to its predecessors? If "Four Winds EP" has anything to prove, it is that "Cassadaga" will.

"Four Winds EP" includes the title track and five b-sides that will not be included in the final album. In many bands, b-sides are treated as throwaways, but given Bright Eyes' vast library of songs, b-sides make a welcome addition to the collection, especially given the caliber of the songs present on "Four Winds."

The EP begins with the title track, which is also the lead single off of "Cassadaga." The prominence of the violin makes the track extremely enjoyable and showcases the slick production that will most likely be utilized in the full length album. It also shows a surprising show of restraint from Oberst, offering only one yelp that has helped solidify him as one of America's best songwriters. By using concise lyrics, Oberst manages to prove he can make a song that does not deviate from its message, and the lush instrumentation could even make this radio-worthy.

The other five songs on the EP are eclectic, although there is no indication that Bright Eyes plans to head in the direction introduced in "Digital Ash." Instead, two of the tracks, "Reinvent The Wheel" and "Cartoon Blues," focus on pursuing the instrumentation introduced in "Four Winds" while three others, "Stray Dog Freedom," "Smoke Without Fire" and "Tourist Trap") are reminiscent of Bright Eyes' earlier work. The roaming "Stray Dog Freedom" is classic Oberst, with stream of consciousness lyrics personifying freedom as a dog. "Reinvent The Wheel" is a piano-driven song about death and reincarnation while "Cartoon Blues" deals with Oberst's alcoholism and his troublesome rise to fame.

"Cartoon Blues" is the anomaly in this release with its frantic pacing and experimentalism. The other experimental track on the EP, "Smoke Without Fire," is a mystical and sparse collaboration with M. Ward. Despite its focus on atmosphere, "Smoke Without Fire" isn't a far stretch for Bright Eyes. "Tourist Trap" is extremely reminiscent of the song "Lua" off of "I'm Wide Awake." With this excellent pedigree of songs, "Four Winds EP" makes the wait for "Cassadaga" that much more intolerable, but assuages the anxiety of what to expect upon its releases.