I was definitely a late comer to the whole Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst thing. Actually, I'd heard of him quite some time ago. A student loaned me the "Lifted..." album back in '02. I thought it had some cool songs on it but the warbly voice that Oberst used to affect so much in his earlier recordings kind of annoyed me. Too much forced depression for my tastes. I dismissed him for years afterwards but right before his "Cassadaga" album came out some kids pushed me into giving him another chance. Something I heard in the "Four Winds" ep caught my ear and the last three or four years have included a lot of Conor Oberst in my life. He really is a great songwriter and a fantastic performer."Easy/Lucky/Free" is from the Bright Eyes album "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn." It came out at the same as the much-acclaimed "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" record, but was not held in nearly the same high regard. Something about it's electronic experimentalism turned off a lot of Oberst's neo-folky fans and most people will tell you it's Bright Eyes' worst record. I have to disagree. It's an especially good album to listen to on headphones. There's a lot of cool layering to the sounds you hear. "Gold-Mine Gutted" does some interesting stuff with the percussion noises, and a lot of the songs are little sonic experiments. I think you can hear the good Bright Eyes songwriting at the core of them all, but some people get lost in the distortion I guess.
"Easy/Lucky/Free"... I don't know what the hell it's about. Oberst was recently called Songwriter of the Year... and maybe even of his generation by Rolling Stone. I don't about that. He definitely uses a lot of metaphors, alliteration, and other literary devices but the meaning of the lyrics is often lost on me. Some of them seem more like a study in wordplay, ala Wilco, or more of an emotional presentation than a literal one. "Easy/Lucky/Free" has some interesting imagery in it with lines like "refrigerators full of blood" and "Listening for patterns in the sound of an endless static sea." Later he says "We'll lay in bags as dead as leaves... all together for eternity." I don't really know what any of it means, but Oberst's word choice is great. I'd gather it's something kind of apocalyptic, but regardless... it sounds pretty cool, pretty heartfelt in his singing, and pretty intelligent too. There's definitely a hell of a lot more going on there than in anything you'll hear by the Kings of Leon!
"Easy/Lucky/Free" is from the album "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the page.
No comments:
Post a Comment