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Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
(Drag City) UK release date: 30 March 2009
3 stars
Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle

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track listing

1. Jim Cain
2. Eid Ma Clack Shaw
3. The Wind and The Dove
4. Rococo Zephyr
5. Too Many Birds
6. My Friend
7. All Thoughts Are Prey To Some Beast
8. Invocation of Ratiocination
9. Faith/Void

related
ALBUM:
Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle

ALBUM:
Smog - A River Ain't Too Much To Love

TRACK:
Smog - Rock Bottom Riser

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Bill Callahan


It's hard to think of an artist that has matured as much over the years as Bill Callahan, aka Smog, aka (smog). Once the prince of lo-fi, his recordings have become progressively more sophisticated - both in terms of instrumentation and lyrical content.

This is, after all, the same man who, on 1993's Julius Caesar, was hollering up a storm about a young lady not insisting on condoms: "What kind of angel is that?" Well, it was the '90s, after all.

These days, it's all a lot more sedate - perhaps too sedate. His last record, Woke On A Whaleheart, his first under his own name, received fairly poor reviews, even from publications once enamoured with his chiseled baritone voice. But you don't carve out a 19-year recording career without being determined, if not stubborn as a mule, and Callahan's not really one to care too much about the critics.

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle plows a similar vein to Woke On A Whaleheart: the black humour, the percussion as insistent as a nail-gun, and that Marmite voice are all present and correct. But where Woke On A Whaleheart tended towards gothic country, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle introduces some beautiful orchestral flourishes that offset Callahan's gravely voice perfectly.

It's reminiscent at times to what pal and label stablemate Will Oldham did on Bonnie "Prince" Billy Sings Greatest Palace Music. It's a gamble that really pays off on opener Jim Cain, with Callahan sounding like an alcoholic that just woke up before noon for the first time in seven years and saw some sunshine and flowers.

Eid Ma Clack Shaw carries on the fine form, milking the full emotional impact from the lyrics, "Show me the way/ Show me the way/ To shake a memory". While the orchestration dives into panto at the opening of The Wind And The Dove, it recovers to become a fine song about unfulfilled love.

Whisper it: could Callahan be back on form? Well, don't get too excited. For some reason, he's got a peculiar obsession with very loud, steady drums. After those first, fine tracks, it all starts feeling like you are trapped in the muffling embrace of a lumberjack with a heart the size of an ox.

Rocco Zephyr should have been the core track, but instead is a headache-inducing dirge. It sets the tone for the album, with moments of real beauty smothered by overenthusiastic percussion. Closer Faith/Void is a song about, ahem, losing one's religion, and is the perfect opportunity to make up for lost ground. Come on, Bill!

It's the last track, it's about God, give us something to remember. Well, no, it's not going to happen. Callahan sings about it being "time to put God away", as though he were rolling socks and stowing them safely in the top drawer. It's what you'll be doing with Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle after a few listens.

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