Camp Revival

(Warning: the following paragraph contains extreme hyperbole language that may or may not cause the reader to rush out and buy the record in mention)

The latest offering from the utterly prolific Bill Callahan, the artist formerly known as Smog, is undeniably the best record to reach my headphones this year. And yes, I have heard some of the Animal Crack Box.

Do you wish to be the last one on the planet to hear Jim Cain, the first track of Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle? Of course you don’t. That would mean you would be missing out on the soft, swirling strings and world-weary confession of Callahan as he admits “I used to be darker / then I got lighter / and then dark again”. There seems to be a retreat from the lovestruck place he sings from on his previous record, Awoke on a Whaleheart. And from this place, Callahan takes the listener down through dreamscapes of perfect songs in gibberish (Eid Ma Clack Shaw), an ominous approach to humanity and love (My Friend), and an ending meditative refrain that announces that “it’s time to put God away” (Faith/Void).

I Wish We Were An Eagle is a document 0f a darker stretch that has taken Callahan back into a uncertain, but honest place. There’s a constant ebb and flow of exploring knowing and unknowingness through the entire record. As he admits on the first track, “I started out telling the story / without knowing the end”. If it’s okay with Callahan, I’d like to pull God back out just for a couple minutes- so I can say thanks for an artist who has the courage to steer clear of being the stereotypical songwriter sage, as best articulated on the song, Rococo Zephyr, “I used to be sorta blind, now I can sorta see.”

Jim Cain

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