Callahan's reinvention goes to the birds

Bill Callahan makes a habit of reinventing himself. Better known under the pseudonym "Smog" for most of the past two decades, Callahan has evolved through his musical career, starting from his early years of lo-fi discordance to his current role as stoic indie folkster.

But at no point during that artist evolution did Callahan do better work than his latest album, "Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle." In only his second album since retiring his hazy nom de plume in favor of his given name, Callahan has crafted an aviary of introspective reflection that is simultaneously grim and inspiring.

By combining the darkness and focus of the Smog days with the grandiose frankness of his last album, "Woke on a Whaleheart," "Eagle" becomes a more carefully layered affair than Callahan has ever crafted, and that's quite an achievement.

Like always, Callahan is at his best when he's at his simplest, and this is definitely the case on "the Wind and the Dove." While the lyrics betray the song's innocent sounding title and music ("Somewhere between the wind and the dove/lies all I lost in you"), Callahan manages to strike enough of a balance to avoid drawing attention to the contrast.

Many criticized Callahan's unfocused use of varied instrumentation on "Whaleheart," something that wasn't really in his repertoire during the Smog days. But on "Eagle," he finally makes proper use of horns and (mostly) strings, particularly on the track "All Thoughts are Prey to Some Beast."

"Eagle" comes to an emotional climax on the final track, "Faith/Void," when Callahan loses faith in…faith ("For a void without a question is just perverse"). It's classic Smog stoicism when Callahan declares, "it's time to put God away."

In the end, Callahan's music is never as negative as it seems on face value. Like when he says "love is the king of the beasts/and when it's hungry it must kill to eat" in "Eid Ma Clack Shaw," things are quite as emo as they appear.

It'd been widely assumed that Callahan discontinued the use of the name Smog as a sign that the nature of his work would be more positive, but the high points of "Eagle" harken back to the best of the Smog days, most notably "A River Ain't Too Much to Love," "Rain on Lens" and "Dongs of Sevotion."

All in all, "Eagle" is one of if not the best of Callahan's work or at least the most consistent, which is saying a lot since Callahan has been one of the most reliably good songwriters in the indie world for over 15 years. You should feel bad for not listening to him.

Grade:??A