Bright Eyes “I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning” (Best of the Decade)
Far from being a Conor Oberst apologist, I was actually one of the people who was frustrated by his maddeningly inconsistent early work, especially on his third and fourth albums under his Bright Eyes moniker: 2000’s Fevers and Mirrors and 2002’s Lifted or The Story is the Soil, Keep Your Ear to The Ground. I found his work to be uniquely brilliant at times and annoying and trite at others. That is why I was so surprised when I was absolutely blown away by his 2005 album I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning, released on the same day as his electronic album Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning was his most straightforward and mature album to date and found him catching his songwriting lighting in a bottle with the amazingly deep and profound collection of songs. It’s a record that I have played start to finish more times than I can remember and one that still proves capable of leaving a deep impression on me. After this pinnacle in his career Oberst has taken a couple different approaches (including dropping the Bright Eyes name), but he has never been able to reach the dizzying heights of I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning, one of my very favorite records of the past decade.
Bright Eyes “Lula” (mp3)
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When those two albums came out I told everyone I was more stoked for Digital Ash but eventually ended up listening to that album more. I think you’re right. It’s probably his best album.
all of conor’s shit sucks–get a real job, cause this one isnt doin it for ya
The entire appeal of Conor Oberst was the frantic nature of his output. Wide Awake marked the beginning of what I call his adult alternative contemporary period, which has never caught my ear in the same way. I’ll take the inconsistent-yet-brilliant nature of Fever and Lifted over anything he’s done since. Not that there aren’t things I love on Wide Awake (and Digital Urn), but nothing that matches ‘False Advertising’ or ‘The Calendar Hung Itself’. Back then he sounded like a man who could come apart at any given moment, and I’ve never heard the same passion from him since.
That being said, I saw him on the Wide Awake tour when they were out playing shows with Nick Zinner on guitar & The Faint opening, and it was outstanding. Quite the production. Though I think I preferred the simpler arrangements for the Lifted period, when he opened for Belle & Sebastian.