I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

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CD Details

Artist: Bright Eyes
Brand: Baker Drivetrain
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-01-25
Model: 00648401007220
Music Label: Saddle Creek
Soundtracks:

At The Bottom Of Everything
We Are Nowhere And It's Now
Old Soul Song (For The New World Order) - (with Emmylou Harris)
Lua
Train Under Water
First Day Of My Life
Another Travelin' Song
Land Locked Blues
Poison Oak
Road To Joy

Music reviews of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

Music Review: Classic
Rating: 5 Stars

The current generation still values many older artists because of their remarkable talent. Bob Dylan, Bruce Springstein, The Rolling Stones, etc. These are classic music passed on by our elders. We, the younger generation, will continue this tradition of spitting out classics and will contribute Bright Eyes to this list. The music Conor Oberst (the driving force of Bright Eyes) creates will be played and enjoyed for innumerable years, just like those classic musicians before him. He will last beyond his present popularity. His amazing talent and gravity as an artist can't be ignored.
Oberst's talent is so obvious that people are shocked by his age. "The first sentence of all my reviews has always been how old I was," Oberst comments in an interview with Rolling Stone ("King of Indie Rock"). And no wonder people are so amazed at Conor Oberst's age. At age twenty-four, he has released almost thirty CD's and EP's under the name of Bright Eyes and displays a talent and depth in his lyrics and musical ability that reaches far past his years. Conor was only ten when he picked up a guitar for the first time and even then he didn't waste time imitating popular artists. As soon as he learned two chords he was writing his own songs, playing at venues, and making a cassette not long after. He has been writing songs for fourteen years and over this time he has developed into this undeniably talented artist.
Oberst has always had the ability to weave his emotions into words so others are able to relate to them; even feel them. His lyrics seem to expose every inch of his depressed heart and sunken soul. "When you're sad it's comfortable. I guess when I started I was intentionally trying to write hope into songs," he comments of his beginning career as a songwriter ("Beyond Bright Eyes"). Now, he knows better than to check his emotions and has no trouble writing his true feelings which could include anything from wanting a lover he doesn't actually have to love, to contemplating suicide. Most people cringe at the mention of these topics; most people restrain from saying them even in open conversation with a close friend, but he has no shame about his thoughts and wails about them on stages in front of hundreds. He's true to himself and doesn't hold anything back.
He involves himself with his songs to such an extent that his voice wails and shakes like an involuntary vibrato stemmed from his inner pain. Every utterance is a direct reflection from his soul. He sounds so fragile, that at any moment, it seems he could break into tears. Some people find this expression of emotion over done and even annoying because, until his newest album, you rarely heard his voice without this uneasy shakiness. In "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning", released in January 2005, he has learned to control this quirk, still managing to keep the emotion strong in his voice. In the albums he released before this one, he was very absorbed in his feelings; he described every pinch and ache of his heart in great detail. In this album he is more reflective about those feelings and the world around him. He's stepped back and taken a look at his life. It takes a strong person to be so objective about one's own life. It's this reflection that steadies his voice and lets him express himself without connecting himself too strongly to his emotions.
In this growth and maturation, he has become less self-centered. This makes it that much easier to get his message across. He's not so swallowed up in his thoughts and emotions. He's able to look for deeper meanings when most artists his age are only writing about breakups and crushes. He's definitely no Brittany Spears. His music means more to him than just a paycheck and popularity. He pours everything of himself into his songs.
His lyrics are part of what makes his music so amazing. In this new release, he still strips his emotions to the marrow, yet the meaning behind the words has deepened intellectually. He has climbed the mountain and looked around at the view below him. He slipped a little symbolism into his songs written before this album, but there is a difference in the way he presents it. In his old albums, the symbolism was very obvious and straight forward. He even labeled a cd "Fevers and Mirrors" because he repeatedly used that imagery to symbolize some of his deeper thoughts. Without having any experience in analyzing and detecting symbolism, a person could see that the fever he mentions is something that plagues him, like his depression, and the mirror is self reflection. In "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning", he is much more subtle in exposing those details that have more meaning than displayed on the surface. You have to listen carefully to pick out the symbolism. For example, he mentions a yellow bird on several occasions which is symbolic of the freedom to be happy, but those lines are not emphasized musically so a person is much less likely to discover the treasure buried in them. This gives that treasure so much more value.
Though Oberst has had almost thirty releases in the span of Bright Eyes' existence, he has never released a single "CD". Instead he releases "albums". This distinction is important because it shows the artist has actually put energy into the making of the cd and cares about how the music is presented. A CD is just a compact disk. Someone slapped some songs on a disk and called it good. There was no thought involved. The songs should have a similar sound and be somehow related other than just sharing the same artist. They could be about the same topic or have reoccurring themes or imagery. The songs should flow together. When a person listens to an "album", he or she should feel a sense of completeness about the piece of work. Classic musicians only release "albums".
"I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" is no exception to his unfaltering streak of "albums". It was written as a reaction to his last album, "Lifted or the Story is in the Soil Keep Your Ear to the Ground". "Lifted"'s layers frayed out like an onion's. Each line displayed deeper meanings and raw aching emotions mixed with Oberst's quavering voice. "I wanted to do something stripped down" Oberst explained his choices for "I'm Wide Awake" in an interview ("King of Indie Rock"). Most songs in on the album have only Conor, his guitar, and sometimes Emmylou Harris softly cooing his every word (Saddle Creek Records Review). This unornamented layout guides the listener's attention to the lyrics and the meaning of the song rather than the overall sound. It gives the album a more personal feel. You feel like Conor Oberst is right there, sitting in front of you, playing a personal concert. It's an intimate connection you feel between yourself and Oberst's emotions.
This album contrasts deeply with the other album released at the same time, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. Digital Ash is very synthesized and rhythm based. His lyrics are still deep, but this album is more about enjoying the music than sifting through ideas and feelings. When this album comes on, you have to stop and wonder why your head is bobbing. The beat is infectious.
Oberst, like any other classic artist, is versatile. He feels no need to tie himself to one genre. He can write an entirely acoustic album and release it at the same time as an album that has a synthesized rhythm-driven sound. He doesn't limit himself. He's constantly shaking the public's opinion of him and his band. He can try something new and do well at it the first try.
Conor has always been willing to try new things musically, but his recent album expresses a different side of him as a person, too. He shares his political views and how appalled he is by the violence that the world has chosen to solve its problems. He has a stronger base to support these opinions because he is more secure in himself so he can say anything he wants about those touchy subjects and not care what people think about him. That takes a huge amount of guts and he deserves our respect for being bold enough to stand for what he feels is right.
If you want to experience something great, you need to hear this band. Just like you might remember the first time you heard an Eric Clapton album, or Bob Dylan, you will forever think back to the first time you slid that shiny disk into the player and the way the cold, plastic speakers transformed into vessels carrying thick emotion weaving through the vibrations of Conor Oberst's guitar strings and vocal chords. You will remember, and so will the world for decades to come, that Conor Oberst was a classic musician.

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Description of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst continues to earn his reputation as our most respected young troubadour with almost frightening ease. For the past few years he's been tagged "rock's boy genius" by the music press. These albums are a soundly articulated slice of modern life rolled into two very different records, both bursting with all the heartfelt poetry for which Bright Eyes' records have earned their acclaim. Of course, the rough edges haven't gone away - the palpitation of a splintering note, the crack of a voice as it overextends, the clumsy thump of a misplaced thumb. It's all still there. But there's a glorious new level of depth, a maturation of texture, writing and delivery. His best work yet.

Conor Oberst is running on dangerous ground: getting his first Dylan comparisons at age 12, frolicking with Winona Ryder, releasing two separate albums at once. Didn't he learn anything from Ryan Adams's mistakes? It's a good thing he can write such haunting, intimate songs. I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (released simultaneously with Digital Ash in a Digital Urn) is the album the Omaha native has always threatened to make, channeling his country rock influences into articulate, witty ballads that come to life with gorgeous harmonies supplied by Emmylou Harris. The tumbling "We Are Nowhere and It's Now" might be his first actual masterpiece, while the words of album closer "Road to Joy" ("I could've been a famous singer if I had someone else's voice/ But failure's always sounded better") indicate that Oberst might have his head screwed on right after all. -- Aidin Vaziri

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