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Bright
Eyes
"I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning"
Saddle Creek
Much
like "Use Your Illusion I" was the quieter of Guns 'N' Roses's two-disc
epic (c'mon, it had that lame Dolphin song AND "November Rain"),
"I'm Wide Awake" reaches into singer/prodigy Connor Oberst's heart
and rips out all of his acoustic/folk/country songs and dumps them
into one disc.
That
said, his softer side is what made him a star and most of the songs
on here are keepers. From the spoken-word intro (something he's been
repeating since "Fever/Mirrors") pretty much through until the penultimate
tune "Poison Oak," this record spotlights Oberst's vocals and
holds off on the massive orchestration, which saturated his last
effort, until a point absolutely has to be punctuated. Other than
that, this is a record consisting of Oberst, a guitar, some subtle
slide steel, tender drumming, and a dab of female background vocals for
harmony.
"So
don't stay mad/ just let some time pass/ and in the morning you will
wake feeling new," Oberst sings in all his emo glory on "Train Under
Water," the longest song on the record, and possibly one of the most
passionate, touching on his new home (New York) and a tiny bit of
hope in the world.
The
best track on the record, oddly enough is the one that sounds the
most like something off Oberst's last record. "Road to Joy is a bombastic
rallying call to anyone who's sick of war and the turmoil around
the world. The music roars to life with bells, horns and tons of
distortion. "So when your asked to fight a war that's over nothing/It's
best to join
the
side
that's
gonna win/No one said how all of this got started/But we're gonna
make 'em goddam certain how it's gonna end," Oberst sings bathed
in irony, sarcasm and a bit of truth.
The
beautiful chaos on that last track flows right into the techno chaos
of the companion record to "Wide Awake," "Digital Ash." Did
Oberst really need to make two records at this point in his career?
Probably not, but they are both awesome, and that's pretty much all
that matters.
Reviewed
by: George Koroneos
Reviewed on: February 28, 2005
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