BRIGHT EYES

   by Whitney Weiss

A decade ago, Conor Oberst was just barely a teenager, who happened to have older, musically inclined friends. (Those friends are now in bands like The Faint and Cursive). Back then, they encouraged him to play music and were often impressed and amused with the results. Now, Conor Oberst simply doesn’t have enough hours in a day to talk to regional press about the music he’s writing (under the name Bright Eyes, which encompasses whoever he’s playing with at the time). He’s in the pages of Spin and Blender and last fall he was onstage with Bruce Springsteen and Michael Stipe of R.E.M. In January, he released not one, but two albums that are beautiful in their entirety.

Despite the direction Oberst’s music is going (a lovely direction, really, I can’t imagine how either album could be any better than it is already), some are worried. There are those who see a move from Omaha to New York City as a sign it’s going to change Oberst for the worse. There are others, elitists, who simply cannot stand new people in the Bright Eyes crowd, and think their presence is going to change Oberst. And then there is the concept of being famous, of having newspapers and magazines care who you’re making out with enough to get pictures and publish them. That could change any musician, particularly one astute enough to know what’s going on, who had panic attacks long before being under a microscope.

After listening to the two albums and seeing a recent Bright Eyes show, I am pleased to report that it looks as though things are going well for the most part. When a girl (most likely the same girl who screamed "I LOVE YOU CONOR!!!!!") threw roses onstage, Oberst was nice enough to pick them up and gently set them down on top of his amplifier. The adoration doesn’t seem to be the problem, it’s more the fringe elements of obnoxious "fans", such as high schoolers who took to shouting "CONOR VOTED FOR BUSH!!! YEAH DRINK IT ALL! CHUG CHUG CHUG!" while an entire theatre sat silently. But those fans knew all the words to "Lua," and "Lua" was a single that went to number one on the Billboard chart. It’s all sort of absurd.

Everyone should most likely thank Conor Oberst for spending half his time in New York City. Without residing there, I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning would be without the politics and awe of "Old Soul Song," which chronicles the February 15th war protests, the filled-in blanks of a lonely evening of debauchery in "Lua," and the sometimes wide-eyed view of the city that’s in "Train Under Water." I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning is city-life content through the filter of a boy who played lots of guitar by himself in the Midwest. It’s lyrically and musically perfect. There isn’t a single song to skip over, and each is quite deserving of 15,000 words on its own. Even someone prone to exaggerations or someone else who hates Bright Eyes would be forced to admit that every second of attention this record gets, it deserves. Sincerely.

If you catch Bright Eyes this winter/spring, you’ll be hearing material from I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, which was recorded in a week and a half. In terms of a genre, its songs are folky, timeless, country, and pop. After that tour ends, Bright Eyes plans on touring with The Faint and playing material from Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. If you didn’t pick up on it from the repetition in the title, Digital Ash… is a more electronic album, full of material that has roots in older Bright Eyes songs like "I Will Be Grateful For This Day" and "Pull My Hair," sounds that haven’t been fully realized yet. This is the record that isn’t as easy to get into at first, and that will turn off fans expecting something more accessible and obvious. However, Digital Ash… sounds like a lot of effort went into exploring a different direction. It has guest guitar sounds from Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Conor experimenting with sampling and different ways of using his voice. If released without a companion album, Digital Ash… would be far more appreciated than it might be living in the shadow of I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. In terms of attention distribution, Digital Ash… is the Speakerboxx and I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning is more like The Love Below.

The non-album songs of this era are also notable. If you go on iTunes, you can download "When the President Talks to God" for free. It’s a song that Ani Difranco has been trying to write ever since she started feeling disenfranchised in front of an audience. Conor Oberst gets it exactly right. Unlike Bob Dylan, who, despite all the praise, often doesn’t quite know when to end a song, Conor Oberst needs no editor. Hearing "When the President Talks to God" live was the singlemost electric political moment ever during a concert. The entire band retreated and under a gigantic chandelier stood this 24-year-old who has already become a timeless songwriter. He strummed four chords and sang lines like "When the president talks to god, are the consonants all hard or soft/Is he resolute all down the line/Is every issue black or white/Does what god say ever change his mind/when the president talks to god." And every kid in that room clapped or shouted or yelled ferociously in response to every line. On these albums and live, never has a musician been so sincere.

I hold no ill will for Conor Oberst and his busy schedule. I hope that everyone who reads this article gives his new music a chance, and sees him live. It really is the best thing happening right now, even if eventually you’re inundated with how great it is by the mainstream press.

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