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"Maybe I should confess a little secret. In the future, no one loves you. This period is seen as full of lazy, selfish, civically ignorant sheep. Perhaps you should worry less about me and more about this." (John Titor)
I think it was November 2005, although I wouldn't bet on it now, a friend burned me a Bright Eyes CD. I don't even remember if I listened to it well or not. Anyway, it was forgotten for a long time. One evening I was returning from a billiards match - Alessandro and I against Francesca and Giulia. They beat us spectacularly, and between us, I've never liked losing in these male versus female challenges; losing on these occasions always gives me a certain sense of frustration. Anyway, that too was forgotten. We were returning, and Alessandro put on a compilation that starts with a guy talking.... Happy birthday Darling we love you very, very, very much... -Who is it, Alessà?- I asked him as an acoustic guitar and a rhythm started that couldn't help but engulf me. He answered that it was Bright Eyes. Honestly, I don't know why I thought that it was rubbish; I don't know why. Probably because of all those adjectives that the music press kept giving him “Rock Boy Genius” and so on.
I went home. I was quite drunk. I searched through my CDs and found this “I’m wide awake it’s morning” CD, I couldn't remember the name of the friend who had burned the CD for me. She had been forgotten. I put on the CD, and it started with that song I listened to a few hours and a few beers earlier. I saw the titles “At the bottom of everything”, I listened to it 10 times in a row, then before going to sleep, I set the player to a very low volume, and during the night, I listened to it quietly. That night I had a beautiful dream. That too was forgotten.
"You can change your worldline for better or worse, just like I can."
Many things can be said about Bright Eyes, I suppose. I don't know his discography very well; my reviews or music-themed narratives don't need to know everything and its opposite about their topic. What I do know for sure is that “I’m wide awake, it’s morning” is one of those albums that accompany me at any time of day in any situation, whether circumstantial or emotional. Bright Eyes could probably be defined as the equivalent of Bob Dylan for our generation. Behind his work, there is a great recovery of the American musical tradition and at the same time a continuous drive for innovation. Just think that when “I’m wide awake, it’s morning,” a mostly acoustic or electrified album, was released, the electronic and electro-pop-oriented “Digital ash in a Digital urn” was released simultaneously. “I’m wide awake, it’s morning” unfolds in 10 episodes, and in these 10 episodes, there is a spectrum of human situations and an extraordinary spirit of observation. The album opens precisely with “At the Bottom of Everything,” a delightful folk script where the metaphor of a plane crash hides the metaphor of American society's disaster. According to Bright Eyes, a society where anarchists sleep but don't dream, where magicians’ crystal balls show the past, and where it's more important to memorize numbers than to have a soul. And where the only true satisfaction is finally discovering you're nobody. Do you remember the top 5 opening tracks of an album in “High Fidelity”? Well, certainly “At the bottom of everything” would make it into mine.
The subsequent tracks are a melodic concentrate of solace; this is the great virtue of Bright Eyes, managing to console you in your moments of discouragement, and songs like “We are nowhere, and it’s now”, “Lua”, and “Train under water” unquestionably fit. Then comes the sweetly enchanting “First day of my life”, where love, like in the best cases of poetry, continuously transforms between the ordinary and the extraordinary, and where the only thing that matters is feeling that emotion (And you said, “This is the first day of my life.” “I'm glad I didn't die before I met you But now I don't care, I could go anywhere with you and I'd probably be happy”). It's clear that the album eternally oscillates in the field that ranges from folk to pop music, but it’s equally clear that it does so in a gentle and convivial manner. Great credit must be given to Bright Eyes for managing to find the bridge that connects the author to the listener. After “First day of my life,” the album seamlessly moves towards the journey of “Another travellin' song”, a new epic idea of the on-the-road experience. We no longer know if we are surprised by the joys of traveling or melancholic about these encounters that will lead to nowhere. And after “Landlocked Blues” featuring Emmylou Harris and “Poison Oak”, the final part comes, probably the most successful moment of the album. With “Road to Joy”, it feels like entering the devastated America of suburban families, the tormented souls that the already mentioned Bob Dylan cared so much about narrating but that in recent years, only Bright Eyes has managed to tell, and with this track, Beethoven and Nirvana are incredibly mixed (let me venture another blasphemous comparison: Bright Eyes the new Cobain?).
Ultimately, Bright Eyes takes us into a perspective of revolt and profound study of society and the American musical tradition where discontent is no longer shouted to the world but whispered in the confines of bedrooms, and then, as our hero says, even if we should be wrong “Failures always sound it better”
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 We Are Nowhere and It's Now (04:12)
If you hate the taste of wine
why do you drink it till you're blind?
And if you swear that there's no truth and who cares
how come you say it like you're right?
Why are you scared to dream of god
when it's salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
but the idea just lives on
In our wheels that roll around
as we move over the ground
And all day it seems we've been in between
the past and future town
We are nowhere and it's now
We are nowhere and it's now
and for a ten minute dream in the passenger's seat
while the world was flying by
you haven't been gone very long
but it feels like a life time
I've been sleeping so strange at night
Side effects they don't advertise
I've been sleeping so strange
with a head full of pesticide
I've got no plans in all this time
I feel too restless to unwind
I'm always lost in thought
as I walk a block to my favorite neon sign
where the waitress looks concerned
but she never says a word
just turns the juke box on
and we hum along and I smile back at her
And my friend comes after work
When the features start to blur
She says these bars are filled with things that kill
by now you probably should have learned
Did you forget that yellow bird?
How could you forget your yellow bird?
She took a small silver wreath and pinned it on to me
she said this one will bring you love
and I don't know if it's true but I keep it for good luck
04 Lua (04:31)
I know that it is freezing but I think we have to walk
I keep waving at the taxis, they keep turning their lights off
But Julie knows a party at some actor's westside loft
Supplies are endless in the evening, by the morning they'll be gone
When everything is lonely, I can be my own best friend
I get a coffee and the paper, have my own conversations
With the sidewalk and the pigeons and my window reflection
The mask I polish in the evening, by the morning looks like shit
And I know you have a heavy heart
I can feel it when we kiss
So many men stronger than me
have thrown their backs out trying to lift it
But me I'm not a gamble, you can count on me to split
The love I sell you in the evening, by the morning won't exist
You're looking skinny like a model with your eyes all painted black
Just keep going to the bathroom, always say you'll be right back
Well it takes one to know one, kid I think you got it bad
What's so easy in the evening, by the morning's such a drag
I've got a flask inside my pocket, we can share it on the train
And if you promise to stay conscious, I will try and do the same
Well, we might die from medication, but we sure killed all the pain
But what was normal in the evening by the morning seems insane
And I'm not sure what the trouble was
that started all of this
The reasons all have run away
But the feeling never did
It's not something I would recommend
But it is one way to live
Cause what is simple in the moonlight, by the morning never is
It was so simple in the moonlight, now it's so complicated
It was so simple in the moonlight
So simple in the moonlight
So simple in the moonlight
05 Train Under Water (06:05)
You were born inside of a raindrop,
and I watched you falling
to your death
And the sun,
well, she could not save you
She's falling down too
Now the streets are wet
Body of water, toxic and timeless,
Atlantic ocean, New York skyline
I always get lost when I leave the village,
so I couldn't come meet you in Brooklyn last night
But I sing glory from my lowest,
and I will say peace to the people I meet
while the world waits for an explosion,
that instant of light that wipes the slate clean
So don't be fooled.
No, don't get lied to
Love was always cruel
And don't act strange, don't be a stranger
It happened to me; now, it's happening to you
But if you take that train under water,
then we could talk it through
Well, if I could tame all of my desires
Wait out the weather that howls in my brain
Because it seems that it's always changing
The wind's indecision, the sorrowful rain
Yeah, I was a postcard
I was a record
I was a camera, until I went blind
and now I'm riding all over this island
looking for something to open my eyes
But I still sing glory
from a high-rise
And I will say thanks if you're pouring my drinks
while the world waits for an explosion:
that moment in time when we'll be set free
Well, don't stay mad
Just let some time pass
And in the morning you'll wake feeling new
And if I don't come back,
I mean, if I get sidetracked,
It's only 'cause I wanted to
I'm keeping up with the moon on an all-night avenue
Goddamn
You make me cry
09 Poison Oak (04:39)
Poison oak some boyhood bravery
when a telephone was a tin can on a string
and I fell asleep with you still talking to me
you said you weren't afraid to die
in Polaroids you were dressed in woman’s clothes
were you made ashamed? Why'd you lock them in the drawer?
well, I don't think that I ever loved you more
than when you turned away
when you slammed the door
when you stole the car
and drove towards Mexico
and you wrote bad checks
just to fill your arm
I was young enough
I still believed in war
well, let the poets cry themselves to sleep
and all their tearful words will turn back into steam
but me I'm a single cell on a serpent’s tongue
there’s a muddy field where a garden was
and I’m glad you got away
but I'm still stuck out here
my clothes are soaking wet
from your brother’s tears
and I never thought this life was possible
you’re the yellow bird that I've been waiting for
the end of paralysis, I was a statuette
now I'm drunk as hell on a piano bench
and when I press the keys it all gets reversed
the sound of loneliness makes me happier
10 Road to Joy (03:54)
The sun came up with no conclusions
Flowers sleeping in their beds.
The city's cemetery's humming
I'm wide awake it's morning.
I have my drugs, I have my woman
They keep away my loneliness
My parents they have their religion
but sleep in separate houses.
I read the body count out of the paper
and now it's written all over my face.
No one ever plans to sleep out in the gutter,
sometimes that's just the most comfortable place.
So, I'm drinking breathing, writing singing
every day I'm on the clock.
My mind races with all my longings
But can't keep up with what I've got.
So I hope I don't sound too ungrateful,
what history gave modern men
a telephone to talk to strangers
machine guns and a camera lens.
So, when you're asked to fight a war that's over nothing
It's best to join the side that's gonna win.
And no one's sure how all of this got started,
but we're gonna make 'em god damn certain how it's gonna end.
Oh yeah we will, oh yeah we will!
Well I could have been a famous singer,
if I had someone else's voice.
But failure’s always sounded better
let’s fuck it up boys, make some noise!
The sun came up with no conclusions
Flowers sleeping in their beds.
The city's cemetery's humming
I'm wide awake it's morning.
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Other reviews
By NickGhostDrake
"And yet then you listen to 'Lua' and what can you do - love is blind."
"What can come out if a little arrogant brat who grew up in the countryside of Nashville moves to New York... and projects himself entirely into the creation of the perfect chamber pop."
By holdencaulfield
Conor Oberst is 24 years old (I hate this guy). Talented, sure. And incredibly arrogant.
Behind the sparse and fragile sounds of the first CD, behind the Babel-like cathedral of electronic clamor of the second, is hidden a production as meticulously crafted as that of the latest Britney Spears.
