bright eyes
lifted, or the story in the soil
'Conor Oberst is a sad little boy. He carries his melancholy like a cross, hanging on hunched shoulders and a slouched back. Hands in pockets, thumbs out. It is a portrait he paints of himself throughout the record.
He succeeds in aligning himself with his audience to gain the empathy of all ?with no solution but to love and to be loved,? as he sings in the album?s second track, ?Method Acting.?
The most appropriate description of the Conor and crew is displayed in the following track, ?False Advertising? which is reminiscent of Jeff Buckley?s ?Hallelujah.? In this song, Conor chimes in somewhere between whimper and wail with ?Onto a stage, I was pushed, with my sorrow well rehearsed. So give me all your pity and your money. Now.?
Undoubtedly, he suffers from a prodigious case of a Christ complex and is making a living off of it. Oh, the irony.
?Lifted? is the third Bright Eyes album on a linear path in which the distance between point A and point B is rather short. In addition, Conor lends his musical ingenious to a slew of projects, including the now defunct bands Commander Venus, Park Ave, as well as the still-touring Desaparecidos.
The lineup of Bright Eyes seems to change with each song penned. The band is fronted by Conor?s acoustic (and occasional electric) guitar and nasal voice which, at points, comes close to a young Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes). Somewhere in the background noise is a cast of well-over thirty characters, including two choirs (one country, one drunk) and an orchestra.
Although Bright Eyes invariably comes off as Conor?s project, it is the entire ensemble of musicians that gives credibility to the album. The songs are very well structured and each note on the album is intentionally planned out, whether it is tight, or it sounds like a mistake. The choirs and orchestra round out the album and give it a very full sound. The best examples of this are ?False Advertising,? the white-boy hip-hop ?Lover I Don?t Have to Love,? ?Laura Laurent,? and the country tune ?Make War.?
On the whole, this album is much better than most of the music produced in 2002. The lyrics may be written with one too many tears in Conor?s eyes but the music more then outweighs this negative. The positives reign supreme as an overall observation.
Regardless of what any critic has to say, though, in the album?s final track ?Let?s Not Shit Ourselves,? Conor points out ?I do not read the reviews. No, I am not singing for you.? Hmmm. What could prompt a statement like that from someone who does not care about critique? A musician spurned by the press?
Well, don?t worry, buddy, there?s nothing too harsh here. Consider this a proverbial pat on the back.