In contrast with last week‰’s pick, Radiohead‰’s dark and abstract Amnesiac, Bright Eyes‰’åÊ2005 statement I‰’m Wide Awake, It‰’s Morning is strong in its emotional directness and lyrical brilliance. It embraces a warm folk rock sound with lush arrangements that compliment andåÊbolster quivering ruminations on life, love and the tragic degradation of both in a reality blurred by drink, choked by urbanity and vaguely threatened by distant war. At only ten songs, it is Bright Eyes‰’ most focused album, but nearly all albums are songwriting miracles. The resultant album is a nearly peerless piece of the human race‰’s constant struggle with the void.

1.“At the Bottom of Everything”

I‰’m Wide Awake begins with songwriter Conor Oberst delivering a goofy story, punctuated
by sips and hesitations, about a surreal plane crash. Over a lively guitar and banjo, an abstract picture of a crumbling country and family, mass hypnosis, death and its resulting enlightenment set the lyrical tone for the album. The killer last line, “I‰’m happy just because I found out I am really no one,‰” is the only thing left to celebrate.

2.“We Are Nowhere and It‰’s Now”

A skulking ballad of insomnia, alcoholism and isolation in an unfeeling city, this ode to the pressures of loneliness and history is a cold look from Oberst‰’s eyes as he wanders the late
streets of New York. The slow build of the verse leads to a climaxing chorus with Emmylou Harris‰’s harmony drawing beauty from profound weariness.

3.“Old Soul Song (For the New World Order)”

For every post-apocalyptic lyric here, a sliding sunbeam of pedal steel fills the song‰’s chord
progression with rich, stolen nostalgia. Dual drum kits drive the rhythm as the refrain “they go
wild‰” paints a picture of a rebelling young populace. Oberst finally lets his full voice loose, a howl (or bleat), a flawed human over breathtaking horns, guitar and that timeless steel.

4.“Lua”

After the lush armageddon of “Old Soul Song,‰” all that is left is a single guitar and a story about two people so destroyed by substances and insubstantiality that their thrill comes not from
shared emotion, but from shared flasks on subway trains. The story here is brutal but the melody
is so pretty that you can‰’t skip it. And while “Lua‰” is an extreme case, the ephemeral love of
its characters and their futile grasp on nighttime‰’s fleeting bravery is somehow beautiful and
maybe, universal.

5.“Train Under Water”

This more lighthearted, country-tinged number seems to echo through the plains surrounding its
eponymous train. Yet its cheerful, sun-warmed sound belies hints of impending doomsday, an
approaching rapture in the far horizon of this traveller‰’s rear window.

6.“First Day of My Life”

Oberst takes a break from apocalyptic visions to deliver a poignant acoustic love song
that will stalk us from middle school memories to old age. “First Day of My Life” is a flawless depiction of true love delivered with unprecedented honesty. The song is a standout lyrical achievement in Oberst‰’s formidable resume. As impossible as it may be to really get to the essence of true love, the affection, acceptance, devotion and maturity in Oberst‰’s depiction get closer to its core than most have or ever will. The lucky girl.

7.“Another Travelin‰’ Song”

After the emotional workout, we get the album‰’s simplest song. Its entertaining visions of oceans, endless highways, writer‰’s block and surreal nightmares of prostitute children and fast food crowns are delivered in a simple lyrical scheme and carry brief moments of enlightenment, which are nearly hidden by the rollicking instrumentation.

8.“Landlocked Blues”

This harrowing ballad is I‰’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning‰’s crowning achievement of storytelling. Its characters walk away from and toward each other again, as kids point fake guns at adults and adults point real guns on the news while our characters drink and make love. As Oberst moves from normal singing to shouting, the music swells and a trumpeter plays military taps over its cadences, resulting in a tear-jerking requiem. And at the end of it all, our main character escapes again. In a way “Landlocked Blues‰” brings together all of the preceding songs, its couple could be the same couple as in “Lua,‰” but their love for each other echoes “First Day of My Life.‰” The surrounding violence and endless travel and ennui are here, too. The elements that disrupt the two lovers‰’ orbits in an endless cycle of come here and walk away. The story is finished by the realization that it will never conclude.

9.“Poison Oak”

While songs like “Landlocked‰” and “Lua‰” are devastating in their own ways, this song‰’s ever-
building music and ever-intensifying vocals make it the album‰’s most powerful song. As Oberst
reflects on his changes from an idealistic child to a despairing young adult and musician, his
shaking lyrics about poets and tearful brothers and lonely drunk piano playing are swept up by
a sublime arrangement of pedal steel and organ. Few feelings in your life can equal the ones
you‰’re feeling now.

10.“Road to Joy”

If “Poison Oak‰” ended the album, a great sadness would remain in every listener‰’s mangled
heart. But “Road to Joy,‰” with its nods to Beethoven and its martial drums, takes the drink,
despair, heartbreak, war and entropy that have thus far infected Oberst‰’s beautiful album and
turns them into not a defeat, but a challenge. The ultimate response to this challenge is made
clear when Oberst finally screams “Let‰’s fuck it up boys, MAKE SOME NOISE‰” and the
band explodes into glorious cacophony. How dare these doomed humans create such a joyous
explosion of sound, knowing all that is at stake? “Road to Joy‰” shows that it‰’s our nature to and that we must. That‰’s the best thing about this album, in all of its fractured glory. It turns deep fear and crippling realizations into beautiful music that is a classic expression of the glorious, vain human race and its miraculous ability to create beauty in an ever-darkening world.