Bright Eyes: Frisbee Golf Fodder?
Submitted by jim on Mon, 03/07/2005 - 12:46
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LBangs asks
I've spent entirely too much time with Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, and at the end of the day, it, to these ears, is just a bland, boring, disappointing album nowhere near the great work of genius it is being hailed as. Anybody agree, or does anybody care to educate this oldster as to what he is missing?
If nothing else, maybe you can convince him to swap it with you rather than sending it into the Frisbee Golf links. :-)
i would agree with you... but to be honest this is the first i've heard of the hype(guess i'm sheltered to the "indie" hype)... i did listen to a friends copy of i'm wide awake a little and although i thought it was ok, and it sounds really good, the lyrics are just too genericly original(if you get what i mean) and nothing really grabbed me to want me to listen to it again... i thought he was ok, but nothing great... i would like to add that upon looking up his older albums he does have the some of the worst album titles i've seen since lynyrd skynyrd.
Bright Eyes is very much one of the artists who appeals to a very select age group of listeners. Because most of the critics who are hyping the I'm Wide Awake have enevr really shown a lot of love conner's way before, I think a lot of the sudden critical adulation is a cultural attempt to proclaim a new indie king. It may be motivated by last year's mainstream indie boom.
Personally, I really like Bright Eyes, but most of that is an emotional response I have to his lyrics. Don't ask me why, but he simply speaks to me. That said, a lot of people hate Bright Eyes, so I don't think you're alone here.
Perhaps the new album's praise is also based on the fact that it is really Conner's least self-indulgent work, and it is much more straight-forward than his usual work.
Truth be told, the love for the album surprised me too...I figured that those who already love Bright Eyes would love it, and all others would have the same response they usually do, which is closer to LBangs'.
For the purpose of full disclosure, I should mention that my problem is not really with Bright Eyes as an artist as much as it is with the two newest releases. I actually somewhat enjoy Lifted and Fevers. Digital Ash and, the one I have spent the most time with, Wide Awake are the two that strike me as rather weak.
The age issue convinced me a bit until I realized that many of the critics praising these albums are older than I am.
I suspect the oodles of praise is partly due to the desire to crown a new indie king. Heck, when he joined the stage with R.E.M. and Springsteen, I think many felt that coronation had already took place.
Perhaps even more important, though, is the fact that hit me this morning (not quite wide awake, for the record). Critics seem to be notoriously tone deaf evaluating double albums or double releases close together. They hated Exile on Main Street, now correctly seen as a masterpiece. They praised Todd and Sandinista! to high heavens (check out the Jop and Pazz polls), and now both albums are seen as minor (if that) works. Springsteen's Human Touch and Lucky Town were hailed as more masterpieces, though again, they are now seen as quite a bit less so. Same goes for Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusions, though I suppose to a lesser degree, as some still see those as major albums.
Maybe I am straying down the wrong path here, but I can't help but feel I may be on to something...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
By the way, thanks, Jim, for opening this forum up wider!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
My brother loves Bright Eyes, and bought all four of his albums. I'm pretty much .....meh about the music. But I really like 'Take It Easy'.