| CD Review: | |
Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning / Digital Ash in a Digital Urn Up and coming band releases two albums on same day By Chris Senn
On January 25, up and coming indie rock band Bright Eyes released their fifth and sixth full length albums. This is an amazing accomplishment considering Conor Oberst, the mastermind behind the band, is only 24 years old. Oberst has endlessly been compared to Bob Dylan and is considered by many critics to be the best songwriter of his generation. Respect for Bright Eyes has been rising in the indie rock community since the mid 90’s. It was their last album, 2002’s “Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground,” that made the rest of the music world take notice. They even performed on the Vote for Change tour with Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. last fall. Bright Eyes released their two new albums on Saddle Creek Records, founded by Oberst back in 1993. “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning,” consists of straight forward rock accented with hints of country and folk. “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn,” is Oberst’s experiment with electronic beats. |
Back in November, 2004 Bright Eyes held the top two spots at the same time on the Billboard singles chart with “Lua,” from “I’m Wide Awake,” at on top and “Take it Easy,” from “Digital Ash,” at number two. On “I’m Wide Awake,” Oberst borrows a page from Ryan Adams with Emmylou Harris singing on three songs. Adams had Harris sing on his “Heartbreaker,” album. Highlights include the acoustic guitar driven “We are Nowhere, and It’s Now” and the story driven opening track “At the Bottom of Everything.” After “I’m Wide Awake,” Bright Eyes pulled a complete 180 to come up with “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn.” While this album is packed with great melodies and lyrics, keyboards and electronic drum beats are used in place of acoustic guitars. This album is the weaker of the two. They are definitely outside of their comfort zone here. The first half of the album doesn’t quite gel. In the second half, Bright Eyes work out the kinks and the album finishes strong. “I Believe in Symmetry,” and “Light Pollution,” are the standouts on this effort. With each release, Bright Eyes gets better, but they have not yet matured. These albums are both very good, but they are not great. Look for their “great” album in about five years. Grades: I’m
Wide Awake It's Morning: B+ For more information:
www.saddlecreekrecords.com |