If you still think Bright Eyes is reserved for the “ritalin generation,” then you haven’t heard I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash In A Digital Urn. Based on leader/indie icon Conor Oberst’s uncanny foresight, the two albums mix genres like open DJ night. After sharing the stage with rock luminaries Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty and R.E.M. on this past summer’s Vote For Change Tour, Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst is a welcoming buzz word, even if some of the hype is overrated. By taking musical matters in his own hands, courtesy of his own record label Saddle Creek, and rewriting the rules, it’s no surprise that Oberst would simultaneously release two new albums.
Representing his native soil of Omaha, Oberst has released his most Nebraskan badland record under the Bright Eyes moniker. Where 2002’s Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground, toyed with lengthy verses and layered compositions. I'm Wide Awake is a lo-fi country-tinged, stripped down affair that falls in line more with Gram Parsons than Robert Smith. Like Wilco’s Being There, I'm Wide Awake features a hodgepodge of guitars, pedal steel and mandolin that pave the way for Oberst’s sincerity and grace to persevere.
Oberst’s doeful voice mixed with Jim James’ slow whiskey howl gives the first track, “At The Bottom Of Everything,” a nice mix of nervous and unperturbed energy. Emmylou Harris guests on three tracks, and her healing voice boasted by Nate Walcott 's trumpet work on “We Are Nowhere And It’s Now” is endearing. The raw pop folk of “Train Under Water,” which sparkles in verse and structure alongside its lonesome prairie pedal steel, makes it the album's highlight. “First Day Of My Life” visits Dylanesque “Don’t Think Twice” territory, while “Another Travelin’ Song” is more of the sometimes sloppy troubadour rock, better tasted with Harris’ backing vocals. Wide Awake’s loose, cracked voices and sporadically missed notes will shock studio perfectionists, but then again, if Bright Eyes wanted sheen, I’m Wide Awake would sound out of time and place.
The darker Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, filled with electronics and sequencers smack the album with an immediate 80’s feel –“I Believe In Symmetry” even borrows a page from “99 Red Balloons.” Digital Ash builds songs on rhythm and throws in measures of "groove." It might be easy to diss Digital Ash as a pretender album, but after a few listens, it grows on you like Kid A. Familiar pop melodies arise that seem stolen from an 80’s playbook, mixed with synthesizer and break beats push the limits of what a singer-songwriter can get away with. Resting upon lyrical antidotes of time, death and reasoning, the heroic lyrics makes their way through the flood of instruments.
Releasing two albums simultaneously is certainly a lot to digest, and it will be interesting to see if both become beloved or one is tossed to the wayside. Alive or dead, brisk twins, or sour grapes, these two albums are sure to rise a few brows towards the work of Bright Eyes.
