2008 Woodie Awards
Bright Eyes - 2 albums of 2005 worth a second look
Is this musical man the modern day Bob Dylan?
Jen Utley
Issue date: 1/10/06 Section: Detour
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He's not the angst ridden Emo-kid we all thought he was- in fact, Conor Oberst, the apparent mastermind behind the cult band Bright Eyes, shuns the title 'Emo.' Oberst said the term possesses negative connotations (though I would have pegged him as the genre's quintessential prince). Yet, he might enjoy the next label. The 24-year-old Oberst has recently been hailed the "new Bob Dylan," and I can see a few parallels between one of the greatest musicians ever and this unkempt, wide-eyed, pale nerdy kid from Omaha, Nebraska.
Beginning to play music around age ten, Oberst quickly began recording and made his first tape the summer before he started 8th grade.
Admitting that he isn't very good at guitar, Oberst, like Dylan, tends to focus on the lyrical aspects of his music rather than the melodic.
He paints a gloomy picture of the ostracized, the alienated, the confused and the dispirited, taking a seemingly autobiographical form which he claims is not at all.
"A lot of the stuff I write is sort of other people's stories or things that might not necessarily happen to me but float around in the back of my head," said Oberst.
Regardless of his inspiration, his fans still call him one of the greatest songwriters of the generation. And having recently released another two albums (simultaneously, out January 25 of last year), his music continues to mature.
The first of the two CDs, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, possesses a slight Country feel alongside his typical acoustic emotional outpouring. The second, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, centers a bit more around the band he plays with sounding a little less harsh than Wide Awake. Yet both maintain the powerful, thought-provoking lyrics Oberst is known for.
So he's a little Bob Dylan, a little Elliott Smith, in my opinion, kind of Emo and Chris Carrabba-esque. But for those of us who feared that the music greats stopped with Kurt, perhaps we have new hope.
Beginning to play music around age ten, Oberst quickly began recording and made his first tape the summer before he started 8th grade.
Admitting that he isn't very good at guitar, Oberst, like Dylan, tends to focus on the lyrical aspects of his music rather than the melodic.
He paints a gloomy picture of the ostracized, the alienated, the confused and the dispirited, taking a seemingly autobiographical form which he claims is not at all.
"A lot of the stuff I write is sort of other people's stories or things that might not necessarily happen to me but float around in the back of my head," said Oberst.
Regardless of his inspiration, his fans still call him one of the greatest songwriters of the generation. And having recently released another two albums (simultaneously, out January 25 of last year), his music continues to mature.
The first of the two CDs, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, possesses a slight Country feel alongside his typical acoustic emotional outpouring. The second, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, centers a bit more around the band he plays with sounding a little less harsh than Wide Awake. Yet both maintain the powerful, thought-provoking lyrics Oberst is known for.
So he's a little Bob Dylan, a little Elliott Smith, in my opinion, kind of Emo and Chris Carrabba-esque. But for those of us who feared that the music greats stopped with Kurt, perhaps we have new hope.