There’s always been a slightly experimental slant to Conor Oberst’s music. This time, the experiment title seems to be, “What would happen if a major label gave Bright Eyes a load of money to make a record?”

Upon the first listen, the results are as you expected, or at least feared. It seems Bright Eyes have taken that cash and created a watered down version of themselves. First impressions should not always be trusted, though.

After a lengthy intro that gradually blurs into a song and back out again, a simple spoken monologue displaced by spiraling, nauseating strings, the band launch into three Bright Eyes classics: Four Winds, which features some of the finest solo violin you’re likely to find; If The Brakeman Turns My Way, on which Oberst does his best Bob Dylan impression while Jason Boesel from Rilo Kiley adds a Bowie-esque backing vocal; and Hot Knives, which swirls under distortion and minor chords, delivering the album’s most satisfying track.

Bringing a halt to this storming entrance, a soft country ballad with touches of The Carpenters (it’s less traumatic than you’d think), Make A Plan To Love Me slows the pace right down and gives you time to breathe. This, unfortunately, prepares you to give your full attention to the album’s (and possibly Bright Eyes’) weakest song, Soul Singer In A Session Band, which features some awful lyrics and sounds like a cross between Soul Asylum and Gomez.

The album struggles to pick up the pace again after this setback, but repeat listens will draw out some more great songs, like Middleman, No One Would Riot For Less and I Must Belong Somewhere. Even a song like Lime Tree, which initially seems like a painfully test of your endurance, will gradually win you round. It’s the fact that this is probably the easiest Bright Eyes album to listen to ends up making it the hardest, but if you stick with it, you’ll find that it’s not yet time to mourn the loss of another great band to the mainstream.

Label: Polydor
Website: www.thisisbrighteyes.com
Release date: 9th April 2007

Tracklist:

1. Clairaudients (Kill Or Be Killed)
2. Four Winds
3. If The Breakman Turns My Way
4. Hot Knives
5. Make A Plan To Love Me
6. Soul Singer In A Session Band
7. Classic Cars
8. Middleman
9. Cleanse Song
10. No One Would Riot For Less
11. Cost Check Dream Song
12. I Must Belong Somewhere
13. Lime Tree