I’m Wide Awake, Its Morning – Bright Eyes (2005, Saddle Creek Records)
In 2005, in a show of how prolific he was, Connor Oberst released two albums on the same day. He didn’t release them as a double album, because according to him they were different albums and each merited its own release.
The second of those records is called ‘Digital Ash in a Digital Urn’ and it is a paranoid mess. It sounds like what you would get if you took Robert Smith from the Cure and stuck him in front of Radiohead when they are one of their ‘infuriating jam moods’ and I think I’m probably being kind there. Luckily for us the first one of the two albums, sounded nothing like that and was instead, pretty much essential listening. To the point where the second record ‘Digital Ash..’ remains largely unplayed and unloved, where as the first one is hailed as a work of genius.
The first one of those records is called, ‘I’m Wide Awake, Its Morning’ and it is a record where there is much to adore, a broad collection of acoustic alt country songs that fizz with menace and sass.
The difference between the two records is stark. For starters, ‘I’m Wide Awake…’ contains some of the greatest lyrics that Connor Oberst has ever written, particularly on his anti war song ‘Road to Joy’ in which his voice sounds incredible, changing dramatically from that sweet boy next door voice he normally uses to one of a righteous preacherman that literally screams at you.
“And no one’s sure how all this got started. But we’re gonna make them goddamn certain how it’s gonna end.”
Road To Joy – Bright Eyes (2005, Saddle Creek Records)
Elsewhere you get simplicity on ‘I’m Wide Awake…’ and that is what Connor does best, his songs always sound better when it is just him and a guitar. On this album there are loads of examples, but none better than ‘Lua’ which contains more poignancy and emotion in a single verse than the whole of the ‘Digital Ash…’
Lua – Bright Eyes (2005, Saddle Creek Records)
If simplicity and brilliant songwriting isn’t enough then you could always look at the guest appearances, firstly, Emmylou Harris who brings something else to this record, particularly on the track ‘Land Locked Blues’ where she sounds deliberately weary, almost sighing her way through a glorious harmony. Its incredible and frankly I’m glad that Oberst didn’t stick this on the other album, because it would have been totally lost.
Land Locked Blues – Bright Eyes (2005, Saddle Creek Records)
Then there is Jim James from My Morning Jacket, who sings perhaps ten words on this entire record and still manages to make them the most vital ten words on the entire record when he pipes up on the album opener, ‘At the Bottom of Everything’ – a song that no matter how many times I listen to it always gives me the shivers, particularly the line about “criminals strapped to chairs”
At the Bottom of Everything – Bright Eyes (2005, Saddle Creek Records)
‘I’m Wide Awake, Its Morning’ is an incredible record, one that grows on you every time you play it, nuzzling under your skin and teasing your senses with its grace and its honesty.
Poison Oak – Bright Eyes (2005, Saddle Creek Records)
No Badger Required 