Something I’ve Been Listening To

I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning by Bright Eyes.

There are few albums that have had more critic ejaculate spewed on them than this album. You can add my name to list, because now I’m going to shoot my wad on it.

I listen to the music that I listen to most frequently for the lyrics. I’m not musically literate enough to comprehend a well-played jazz song or to appreciate the challenges of writing an unforgettable guitar melody with only three chords. (I only know the number of chords because I read way too many record reviews. In fact, I couldn’t accurately define what a chord is anyway.) I do know, however, when I find a songwriter who can use language that gives me a genuine emotional impact. Which brings us to Conor Oberst.

This pipsqueak motherfucker can write songs that appear effortless, which I can only assume, with endless jealousy, means that they are just that easy for him. Even when he brings a lyric that sounds like it was written by a 22ish kid (“Landlocked Blues”), this kid just makes you realize that he’s failing in front of you only because he’s trying so fucking hard. Then you catch the little shit with a brilliant line like “So I will find my fears and face them./ Or I will cower like a dog./ I will kick and scream or kneel and plead./ I’ll fight like hell to hide that I’ve given up.” (“Another Travelin’ Song”) and you just want to kick him in his supermodel-kissing lips.

If all this sounds like sour grapes you’re goddamn right. I wish I had an armpit hair’s worth of his talent. I may be an easy target, as I’ve always been a sentimental fool, but he can make me swoon with a line like “Yours is the first face that I saw./ Think I was blind before I met you.” (“First Day of My Life”)

Sour grapes all right, I can’t even manage 300 eloquent words about why the kid is so good without cursing like a seventh-grader, and at 23 this is already his fifth or sixth full length album (two this year so far). Oh well, at least there’s some justice and the youngster has struck it rich while I sit here and type to no one on a blog.