 | | |
| Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle | 
 enlarge
| List Price: $15.98
Buy New: $10.40
You Save: $5.58 (35%)
Buy New/Used from $9.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 5 reviews)
Sales Rank: 13829
Category: Music
Artist: Bill Callahan
Publisher: Drag City
Studio: Drag City
Manufacturer: Drag City
Label: Drag City
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.7 x 0.2
MPN: 385
UPC: 781484038528
EAN: 0781484038528
ASIN: B001Q2EIXG
Release Date: April 14, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Tracks:
| • | Jim Cain | | • | Eid Ma Clack Shaw | | • | Wind and the Dove | | • | Rococo Zephyr | | • | Too Many Birds | | • | My Friend | | • | All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast | | • | Invocation of Ratiocination | | • | Faith/Void |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is the new Bill Callahan record. And at the risk of being redundant, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is about as beautiful an album as you can expect to hear sung circa 2009. Unfolding like a first view of paradise, then a slightly less ecstatic second view of paradise and then finally a glance back over your shoulder at that stupid paradise bulls***, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle surveys a landscape that grows organically, like the time two people spend together-or the time one person spends alone (with another). One way or another, it's awfully pretty-something's clearly making Bill feel like a natural man. And high in the saddle, with a pouch of Big League Chew and nine sweet new tunes in tow, he's riding herd over a diverse bunch of sounds by top-notch players. Arranger Brian Beattie brought some old friends back into the picture: violins and French horns. Singing as personal as ever while still spinning wild yarns and melodic guitar fictions, Bill Callahan's on an idyll we hope won't ever end.
|
| Customer Reviews:
EMOTION is a small word with a BIG landscape of meaning June 25, 2009
As an avid watcher of the Discovery Channel I understand when I find something this great it should be massaged gently....
This is in no doubt THE biggest find of 2009...
Emotion is a small word with overwhelming meaning and this new album by Callahan is in the realm of dream-like perfection.
I had so many feelings emerge and a new life of thought... that I Sometimes Wish We Were An Eagle.....
I found a fountain of youth in the songs and will shower in its beauty for the rest of 2009 and most likely until I die.
To vacate the songs as individual would be a disgrace to the beauty of its whole.. The flow of spiritual release -it's astounding !!
Kudos to Mr. Bill for such a fine album
with the trash music today this is a breath of fresh air
and reminds me of how...
Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
A Very Beautiful Record June 3, 2009
This is definately the most beautiful record Bill Callahan has done, it's definately well worth buying.
AFTER THE STORM May 4, 2009
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
We stepped into the record shop (we stll do that) and it was there: the sound filled every corner on that calm afternoon before Easter, the opalescent light of the cloudy day merging perfectly with the music. The place was nearly empty, just ready for the record to unfurl its tapestry of cellos, French horns and soft rhythms topped by a voice blending JOHNNY CASH with BRYAN FERRY and NICK DRAKE. That is, an imposing oak with a slender birch as its core.
We asked a shop assistant if that was BILL CALLAHAN's cd playing and were pleased when he said yes; we had guessed the artist without having heard any of his albums, not even those he recorded as SMOG.
We wandered around the shop. Bought cds by Rickie Lee Jones and Marc & The Mambas. Then left. Struck by sudden hesitation, we had not picked up Mr Callahan.
A mistake, indeed. A few hours later that sound was still on our mind, generating a tenuous but steady throb we ended up calling...longing? yearning? love?
It is now two weeks after the Revelation before, and SOMETIMES I WISH WE WERE AN EAGLE, BILL CALLAHAN's second solo album, has been spinning in our player for a few days.
We now know what we experienced in that shop on that calm, cloudy day: this is the sound you hear just after the Storm has ended. Any Storm in your life: when everything is clear but sorrow is still there, ready to be measured and analysed. Impeccably accomplished, yet still dangerous in a tantalizing way.
This record possesses a ruthless poestic voice. It is lucid despair and unmeasurable relief. It is regret and strength. Torment and detachment. It is darkness in light, and light in darkness.
It is up there with FRED NEIL by FRED NEIL and PINK MOON by NICK DRAKE.
 In search of ordinary things April 27, 2009
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Bill Callahan's lovely "Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle" begins with the humbling admission, "I started out in search of ordinary things ... I started telling the story without knowing the end. I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again." This vulnerable baritone voice and accompanying delicate instrumentals coax the listener on a path of personal exploration and respect of the difficulties in finding balance.
A good deal of natural and animal imagery is used throughout much of the album, lending to the lyrics a sense of unaltered truth. The eagle referenced in the album's title is representative of might, a disruptive tendency ultimately vulnerable to loneliness. ("The eagle shrieked, I'm alone ... Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me.")
In balance, "Too Many Birds" explores the overburdened and overextended, presumably a commentary on modern life. Mr. Callahan pieces together the beautiful verse, "If you could only stop your heartbeat for one heartbeat", extending it by just one syllable at a time, and at once knowingly trying our patience and slowing us.
In "My Friend," an initial sweetness grows towards crescendo with a gruff voice and orchestral accompaniments. The lyrics speak to a sense of personal dedication and complex, perhaps misguided, intent. ("Like two pieces of the gallows, We share a common dream: To destroy what will harm other men.")
The tracks are arranged well and flow nicely, and the clarity of Mr. Callahan's voice and acoustic instrumentals tend to layer this complex album with a sense of calm. I found "Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle" to be very pleasing, both musically and because of its depth of honesty and goodwill.
"In case things go poorly, and I not return, remember the good things I've done."
~~When The Wind Just Dies~~ April 18, 2009
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
There is a hesitancy to literally impart much about this recording. But, let's see what emerges.
Perhaps, after you listen for the first time you'll want to immediately replay the entire piece, not wholly to take again in the beautiful notes, but to find some sort of understanding. By splitting an infinite, an erstwhile infinite, Bill Callahan has found himself here and now with tremendous acceptance and beauty. Enough beauty to stop a heartbeat.
Thank you Bill.
|
|
|
Copyright ©2005-2006 Collect Anime! in association with Amazon.com | | |
