As a leader of the indie rock infiltration of mainstream music in recent years, Bright Eyes’s Conor Oberst has finally started getting his due. The teaser singles for his two new albums immediately shot to the top of the Billboard charts in December, making Bright Eyes the first artist to occupy the first and second slots simultaneously since Michael Jackson at the height of his popularity. I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, the more traditional, alt-country album, while very good, is not his strongest album, but it’s guaranteed to keep longtime fans loyal and, more importantly, open the door to his back catalogue for a new, much wider audience.
Leadoff track “At the Bottom of Everything” is perfectly in line with the last two Bright Eyes albums, right down to the bizarre spoken-word introduction. The track’s backing vocals from My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James give an early hint of the common ground Morning shares with that band’s sprawling alt-country masterpieces. Oberst’s cracking, juvenile voice, endearing to some but enraging to others, remains the centerpiece of the album. The instrumentation ranges from the quietly beautiful, unaccompanied acoustic guitar on “Lua,” to country-rock flourishes on tracks like “Another Travelin’ Song” and noisy indie rock, like the climax of closer “Road to Joy.”
The main problem with Morning is that Oberst’s lyrics, focused as they are on himself, are starting to get old, and that tendency also bleeds into some of the album’s melodies. The listener may occasionally feel like they’ve heard these songs from this band before, and rightfully so. This won’t be the album to silence Bright Eyes’ detractors, as it keeps all of the character of its previous albums intact. It undoubtedly stands up among Oberst’s best work, and has the potential to grab the hearts of more listeners than ever.
