The sixth studio release by Conor Oberst, a.k.a. "Bright Eyes",
this is by far my favorite. It starts with what seems to be a conversation
between Oberst and his therapist, almost a confession or a rundown of a
terrible nightmare gone wrong - but the jokes on you. It's actually the
introduction to a song which seems almost as chaotic as you would hope it'd be.
This album was released the same day as "Digital Ash for a Digital
Urn", it's more techno sounding counterpart. "I'm Wide Awake, It's
Morning" has more a folk sound to it, Conor using his voice and his
acoustic guitar in correlation with stinging, powerful Dylan-like lyrics.
It's important to pay attention to this artist, not only because he has some
important, potent view points on modern issues ("My parents have
their religion, but sleep in separate houses"), but the way that he
non apologetically expresses those views. He recently did a late night
performance of his single, "When The President Talks To God" in
an all red, rhinestone cowboy outfit and spit out line after line opinions
about the so-called "war on terror". Not afraid to stir things up and
make some noise, I believe Oberst may be the new generations version of Bob
Dylan or even Woodie Guthry.
Tracks to pay attention to would be "Lua", "Land Locked
Blues" and "Road To Joy", which is basically a rock
rendition of an old patriotic song with new, more precise lyrics.