Bright Eyes
Four Winds (EP)

After a year, 2006, spent reaping the benefits of the success of the dual work "Wide Awake/Digital Ash" dated 2005, this year it's time to get back in motion. And while waiting for "Cassadaga", due out in April (already available on the well-known servers), a delicious appetizer in the form of an EP with the airy title "Four Winds" is released.

Six tracks for half an hour of excellent music that could already be a complete work in themselves, especially since only the title track will appear on the full-length. The low fidelity is now a distant memory, Mr. Conor Oberst is now an established artist with all the credentials to enter permanently into the high musical spheres and occupy a significant place among the big names of contemporary rock. His sound still starts from a country folk base, but expands to embrace pop rock, always with the unmistakable style that has made Bright Eyes known to the world.

Let's go in order: "Four Winds" is a delightful folk pop embellished with a simple and catchy melody, of which the violin is the main architect; "Reinvent the Wheel" is the classic country blues song with ancient flavors, with a harmonica a la Dylan/Springsteen; "Smoke Without Fire" is a lullaby of just voice and acoustic guitar, evocative and caressing with the exceptional guest M Ward; "Stray Dog Freedom" is a pop rock song with a seventies aftertaste; "Cartoon Blues" is a folk ride that reminds us of Bright Eyes from Wide Awake; the concluding "Tourist Trap" is a hypnotic and solitary ballad, like certain roads in the sunlit southwest.

A record that in its simplicity represents a true jewel of rare beauty, and if these are only the premises, we have no choice but to dive immediately into the main course, that 'Cassadaga' still warm from the press and ready to be devoured by spoiled and greedy fans scattered to the four corners of the winds.