Music Review - Uk Music Review Home

Bright Eyes, the brainchild of Conor Oberst a precociously talented singer-songwriter who's evolved from his lo-fi home taped roots to unlikely arena rock troubadour via a string of quietly impressive records, intense live shows and a rabid fanbase, here releases his highest profile project to date with two albums that see him undergoing something of a Beck like re-emergence on one hand and a fragile country maturity on the other.
Whether you consider it a question of record company greed or genuine artistic integrity, the release of two albums by the same artist on the same day represents something of overindulgence. Arguably different enough records to justify being released separately, but since when was the idea of a double album so alien? Split between a more organic acoustic affair, I'M WIDE AWAKE IT'S MORNING, and the experimental electronic, DIGITAL ASH IN A DIGITAL URN, these are nevertheless albums that don't disappoint.
The acoustic based, I'M WIDE AWAKE IT'S MORNING, is arguably the strongest work containing a level of songwriting that belies Conor Oberst's tender years. In fact, when Emmylou Harris agrees to come aboard and sing backing vocals on your songs then you know you're onto something really special, something that happens more than once here. WE ARE NOWHERE AND IT'S NOW represents the first seeds of this collaboration, and a sublime and graceful moment it is too. This is the kind of song that leaves you scanning the liner notes expecting it to have been written in the heyday of the 70s by someone like Gram Parsons or Bob Dylan, this is quite simply classic songwriting to send a shiver down your spine and leave the hairs on the back of your neck standing to attention. Conor Oberst, still sings in a nervous schoolboy voice that verges on the edge of emotional breakdown at any moment but its a style he's honed to perfection by now - sounding at ease with his burgeoning fame and less schizophrenic and damaged than on previous records.
OLD SOUL SONG (FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER), though reclaims some of that old damage - with his voice rising to a petulant holler as the guitars crescendo and an organ follows suit. The tenderness of LUA has Conor playing alone, just vocals and guitar carrying a song so fragile and touching that you want to give him a great big hug. The folk inflected FIRST DAY OF MY LIFE, features a sprightly fingerpicked acoustic guitar that sounds as its been highjacked from Nick Drake or Ralph McTell, while ANOTHER TRAVELIN' SONG is straight up country rock that wouldn't sound out of place being performed by Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson. Both an emotional and sonic highpoint, LANDLOCKED BLUES, builds from gentle country soul to a tense protest song, starting as a tender duet between Conor and Emmylou Harris, there's a growing friction in the vocals and lyrics that finds lines like "but greed is a bottomless pit/and our freedom is a joke/we're taking the piss" being spat out with barely contained anger at current US policies.
A return to his more ragged work, ROAD TO JOY, finds Conor rising his voice to an excitable holler and spitting out a line like "i could have been a famous singer/if i had someone else's voice/but failure's always sounded better/let's fuck it up boys/make some noise" and unleashing torrents of dissonant free-jazz trumpets and violent drum hits.
Delving into a more experimental oeuvre, DIGITAL ASH IN A DIGITAL URN, finds Bright Eyes plugging in the guitars and pouring on the electronic ambience.
As if to show he means business, TIME CODE, opens proceedings with a gentle soundwash that wouldn't be out of place of a Boards Of Canada record.
Gradually dropping in the odd burst of vocals and heavily programmed beats, this is at the very least proof that Conor is definitely eclectic. If all that seemed just a tad too desperate to prove a point though, GOLD MINE GUTTED, restores your faith that the Bright Eyes you know and love haven't completely left the building. Combining his undoubtedly well crafted songwriting to the more left-field edge with much more impressive results.
ARC OF TIME (TIME CODE) a fragile nursery rhyme strapped to 808 beats invokes a jet lagged Beck fronting Radiohead, while DOWN IN A RABBIT HOLE, sees Yeah Yeah Yeahs' guitarist Nick Zinner lending his skills to proceedings with impressive post-rock effects.
Touching on everything from robotic indie-rock, TAKE IT EASY (LOVE NOTHING), to post-rock folk, HIT THE SWITCH and jaunty pop, I BELIEVE IN SYMMETRY, this is the album that proves the more varied and interesting listen. While I'M WIDE AWAKE IT'S MORNING may prove to be the one to cross Bright Eyes over into mainstream acceptance with its classic arrangements and heartbroken fragility, it's DIGITAL ASH IN A DIGITAL URN that will be the one you keep coming back to, uncovering new sounds and ideas on each and every listen ensuring a certain freshness and inventiveness shines through.
Make no mistake, the advent of these albums represents the emergence of Bright Eyes as a formidable presence on the world stage. Already enjoying massive success back home with number one singles under his belt, the songs here are enough to ensure Conor Oberst a fresh new legion of fans to join his already swelling army of admirers. Yes, this should probably have been a double album in the first place, but the price of an extra record is a small price to pay for something so sublime and precious. Buy I'M WIDE AWAKE IT'S MORNING for pure songwriting classicism, buy DIGITAL ASH IN A DIGITAL URN for post-rock folk genius, buy both and do yourself a huge favour.

In the past few years since the release of Bright Eyes' forth full length album, Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground, the Bright Eyes tale has taken many unexpected twists and turns. Conor Oberst and his ever changing line up of musical comrades appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman, The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborne and were a prominent addition to the MTV2 televised 2003 Shortlist Awards. In October of 2004 he was invited to join Bruce Springsteen and REM on an arena tour of swing states in advance of the presidential election. His performance at those shows sealed his reputation as a creative force, able to command the attention of thousands of rock fans with, at times, just his voice and an acoustic guitar.
Over the past two years the young musician has found himself hurled from his indie rock enclave onto the world's stage. While reaching new heights of commercial success, he was hailed by fans as the finest songwriter of his generation. But he remained, and remains, an artist unwilling to leave his hometown label for any major label's promises.
All the while, critical acclaim has spread far and wide with Bright Eyes selling out several hugely lauded tours and finding an ever swelling and ravenous audience throughout the world. Since Lifted, Oberst has released an almost constant stream of new material for collaborative EPs, tribute albums and charity records. He ventured into the studio with Nebraska folk-pop outfit Tilly And The Wall, co-producing their debut album Wild Like Children and then releasing it on his newly established record label, Team Love. And yet, despite all of this recording and performing, it is his songwriting that has taken unmitigated precedence.
Conor's new songs are undeniably his finest to date. These new compositions have been rolled into two separate, cohesive records, I'm Awake It's Morning and Digital Ash In A Digital Urn, which will be simultaneously released on January 24th. While a plethora of this new material was born from an early relocation to Manhattan, 2004 saw Conor's return to Presto!
Studios in Lincoln to record with long-time collaborator and producer Mike Mogis.
Recording since the age of 13 and tagged rock's boy genius by the music press for the past few years, these two new albums provide unequivocal proof that the now 24 year old Oberst belongs to the lineage of great American songwriters. These albums are a soundly articulated slice of modern American life rolled into two very different records. The new songs are bursting with all the heartfelt poetry for which Bright Eyes records have earned their acclaim. The rough edges are still there - the splintering of a note held too long, the crack of the voice as it reaches slightly too far, the inadvertent thump of a thumb against a fret - but there is a glorious new level of depth and texture to the writing and delivery. Recorded back-to-back and scheduled to be released simultaneously, more out of necessity than any great art plan, the two albums work in tandem to elucidate both sides of Conor's recent creative output.
The first (as in, the first to be laid down on tape) is titled I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning; a country tinged melange of Conor's finest acoustic songs, featuring guest vocal appearances from Emmylou Harris and Jim James (My Morning Jacket).
The second album Oberst recorded, Digital Ash In A Digital Urn, is a more produced, band-centric album featuring cameo appearances by Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
As has become expected of Bright Eyes recordings, the albums feature an array of talented comrades: Jesse Harris, Jason Boesel of Rilo Kiley, multi instrumentalist and producer Mike Mogis, Nick White of Tilly And The Wall, Matt Maginn of Cursive, Clay Leverett and Andy LeMaster of Now It's Overhead, former The Good Life member Jiha Lee, Maria Taylor of Azure Ray, Clark Beachle of The Faint, Alex McMannus of The Bruces, Jake Bellows of Neva Dinova and Jimmy Tamborello of The Postal Service.
www.thestoryinthesoil.com

   :: Line Up :: Discography :: Merchandise :: Further Listening :: Web Links ::