It’s fair to wonder why Bill Callahan bothered to switch up monikers
after nearly two decades in the biz. After all, he’d been cultivating
his cult under the appropriately hazy Smog moniker from his initial
self-released cassettes in the late ’80s all the way though 2005’s A
River Ain’t Too Much to Love. It wasn’t some sort of contractual
dispute; he’s as solidly a member of Drag City’s roster as he ever was.
And it sure wasn’t any alteration of his core sound; 2007’s solo debut
Woke on a Whalebone sounds a lot like late-period Smog. So does
this one. The absurdly named Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle has a lot in common with Callahan’s other recent work. He brings his
crackly baritone to bear on highlights like “Eid Ma Clack Shaw” and the
stunning closer “Faith/Void” (a track that re-imagines Nick Drake’s
Five Leaves Left, if Drake had lived long enough to become
obsessed with krautrock). In the end, a Smog album by any other name is
still Bill Callahan, and it’s of little importance what he wants to be
called if the result soars as high as Eagle does. — Chris Drabick
This article appears in Apr 15-21, 2009.
