Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, Bill Callahan

It’s crazy to think that Bill Callahan put out his first Smog album nearly 20 years ago. To say that his records have had a major impact on me over this span of time would be an epically understated understatement. Over the years Callahan’s prolific and meandering vision has provided me with the soundtrack to days both difficult joyous. Smog has always felt alive to me – heartbreaking bitterness and disparity or blooming positivity and inspiration– there is a humanity to Callahan’s moodiness that is impossible to deny.





It’s tough to imagine getting through some of life’s shittier moments without the support of The Doctor Came At Dawn (1996), Wild Love (1995), and Kicking a Couple Around (1996) crackling in the background.








On the flipside, albums like 1999’s Knock, Knock, and Dongs of Sevotion (2000) are a testament to the simple beauty found just around life’s next corner (B-L-double-oh-D-F-L-oh-double-you, BLOODFLOW! BLOODFLOW!).


Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, Bill Callahan’s second album since shedding the Smog moniker is his most ambitious work to date. Populated with all of the Smog mainstays – acoustic guitar, piano, cello and of course Callahan’s amazing deadpan vocals, Eagle’s instrumentation is focused much tighter than previous efforts.


While some may relish an apparent loss of rawness in his new work –Callahan is simply maturing as an artist. The bent unpredictability of the past has given way to purposeful arrangements and elegance.


Sometimes, I Wish We Were an Eagle contains some of the most amazingly understated guitar work I’ve heard in like, forever.


Country infused acoustics lay atop stringed arrangements to create a comfortingly orchestral musical backdrop.

Callahan’s lyrics are accessible – yet delicate and introspective as evidenced in Eagle's opening track "Jim Cain":

I ended up in search of/ordinary things

like how can a wave/ possibly be

I started running/ and the concrete turned to sand

I started running/ and things didn’t pan out as planned

“All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast” is an eastern influenced, dramatic throw back of sorts to the grittiness of Smog’s earlier albums. Lurching drums build below Callahan’s baritone and hints of distortion that recall “When the Power Goes Out” (Julius Caesar, 1993).

Just as the song appears to near full-blown explosion, strings bring ‘er back down to earth and remind us of just how far Mr. Callahan has come.






Originally posted to the KEXP blog.

Your's Truly, The Commuter.

Jason Lytle is the best guy ever. I’ve never once met him and barring a single Grandaddy show many years ago I’ve never even been in the same room with the dude. With that said it feels like Jason is one of my friends. One of my tightest bros from way back when. Lytle is the same as me and those that I’ve known all my life – cut from the same jib, of the same ilk –WHATEVER, the guy constructed a brilliant song around a Neil Blender sample (Grandaddy’s "N. Blender"). Do you know how many times I watched that video when I was a kid?

LOTS.

Hell, I still have the VHS and I’m watching it now.

Despite my affinity for the push-push, skateboarding alone is not nearly enough for me to get fanatical about someone’s music. Over the years Jason Lytle has made some of the most elegantly raw, beautifully honest songs these ears have ever heard. Grandaddy’s second album, The Sophtware Slump is on my ridiculously short list of 100% perfect albums. Lytle’s songs have always been written from an immensely accessible position of solitude and vulnerability (you’ve been there)– his hushed vocal style, soothing keys and ingeniously plopped synthetic blips hang together to create songs you just can’t not like.

Yours Truly, The Commuter finds Lytle on familiar, but shaky ground. The album’s title track begins just as tentatively as Grandaddy’s final album (Just like the Fambly Cat, 2006) ended. The opening notes call to mind the most masterfully synthetic moments of his past while ceremoniously introducing us to the future. When Lytle sings -


Last thing I heard I was left for dead/Well, I could give two shits about what they said/I may be limping but I’m coming home


-he summarily acknowledges the sadness and alienation of his last years in Modesto (Grandaddy’s tumultuous demise, commercial pressures ,$, substance abuse) and announces that despite all the shit he’s been through that yes, he is giving this another go:


All work and no play mighta done me in/So I’m stoked I’m back after where I’ve been


Often seen as downer-rock there is a positive undercurrent to Yours Truly, not seen since the peak of his former band’s success; 2003’s Sumday. That being said the comfort level and pop-confidence of the aforementioned album is greatly understated here.

A lifelong skateboarder – I can’t help but think about blowing out my knee as a kid (Lytle himself tore his ACL skating), the subsequent surgery and recovery. I remember feeling like my leg didn’t belong to me anymore– that my mind knew exactly how to do all the tricks I’d learned before the injury – that I could see myself as I was before but nothing seemed to work. I remember feeling like a lifetime of accomplishments was gone forever. As I got stronger the successes of the past began to find their way the surface and eventually everything came back. It sucked but I’m better for it. Yours Truly, The Commuter is the onset of Jason Lytle’s recovery; limping forward through the crippling injuries of his past - relearning tricks; getting himself healthy. While musically the album is not much of a departure for Lytle it’s obvious that he’s revisiting earlier work in an attempt restabilize and grow. Yours Truly, contains some of the best songs Lytle has ever written. “Birds Encouraged Him” and “Flying Thru Canyons” recall the fuzzy catchiness of 2001’s Through A Frosty Plate Glass EP while the acoustics of “Brand New Sun” and “I Am Lost (And the Moment Cannont Last) fall somewhere between Under the Western Freeway and The Sophtware Slump. When I hear Jason Lytle’s music and look at his art I feel like we grew up together, watching skateboard videos, laughing and dreaming.

I’ve been unemployed since April and this is the only record I’ve bought since.

Highly recommended.

Originally posted here.