Cassadaga is fully formed, a considered synthesis of the
catch-as-catch-can expansiveness of Oberst's Lifted-era bands with the
country tendencies that have always undergirded his Middle American vocals.
Longtime enabler Mike Mogis is everywhere, playing ten instruments all told.
Nate Walcott mans multiple keyboards and arranges strings and woodwinds, which
get pretty baroque on "Cleanse Song." The last track features just Oberst on
guitar and synthesizer with some femme backup. There are more voice-overs, but
nonetheless there's a stylistic spine here. Oberst's prog and jam-band
tendencies are both subsumed by a sensibility that's Americana in a winning,
all-embracing sense. Americanapolitan, let's call it.