New CD Review of...
Bright Eyes
Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
By: Kiki Alexander
At first glance, I didn’t know quite what to make of Bright Eyes. Hippy-Poet-Poser or Introspective-Young-Prodigy? But after a couple spins ’round the CD player I knew exactly what this boy was. Real.
His sound
varies on each of the thirteen tracks, Raw and exposed to lush and
overwhelming, yet still able to keep this “story” interesting, not
lingering on one subject for too long. However, the unwavering factor
that holds this record together is intense sincerity. Revealing what
we’re all too afraid to say-or maybe, even what we’re all unaware needs
to be said.
It’s hard to place Bright Eyes A.K.A. Conor Oberst--an Omaha native
who’s been recording since thirteen as he jumps between folk, rock,
indie, and singer/songwriter while avoiding the labels altogether.
Still, Oberst more than manages to pull off this fulfilling, eclectic
album with alarming emotion.
That said, you must know, this is not the sort of CD you pop in and expect to relax with. You will be sitting on the edge, waiting to see what he is going to tell you next. Beyond being intelligent and mature on tracks like the thought-provoking Don’t Know When But a Day Is Gonna Come he proves that he is clever and whimsical at the same time, such as on the coming-of-age Bowl Of Oranges.
The album is full of
poignant musical highs, each song a small treasure, but reaches its peak
at the lyrically mesmerizing Waste Of Paint:
Will my number come up eventually?
Like Love is some kind of lottery,
where you scratch and see what is underneath.
It’s ‘Sorry’, just one cherry, ‘Play Again’. Get Lucky.
You will realize, by the time this hour of sheer human genius is over,
that his true talent lies with his words.
We’ve been starved of such honest poetry, drowning in a culture flooded
with manufactured sentiments, and Bright Eyes has just thrown us a line
with the refreshing LIFTED Or The Story is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To
The Ground.