MUSIC REVIEW: Bright Eyes looks to expand audience

Although Bright Eyes has already attained cult-like status within its indie fanbase, Conor Oberst’s musical vehicle now hopes to expand its audience by releasing two albums on the same day: Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.

Digital Ash is the self-dubbed “electronic” album, which seemingly strays from the folksier, more grainy sound for which the band is known. But even though these new effects and instruments are definitely audible, the Bright Eyes sound has not disappeared, making the release all the more pleasing. The group has always had a way of using subtle recording effects to enhance its sound. Its past release, Lifted, or The Story is in the Soil So Keep Your Ear to the Ground is littered with the gradual increases in resonance and filtering techniques that appear throughout Digital Ash.

Digital Ash deftly melds together everyday sounds and classical instruments to create a sound that is true to the original meaning of electronic. From the upbeat maracas and swimming guitars of “Arc of Time” to the darker, keyboard-heavy “Down a Rabbit Hole,” each of the songs on the Digital Ash are distinct in both their moods and instrumentations. But the album does a good job of holding them all together with some especially smooth song transitions.

The lyrics on Digital Ash are also a unifying force. Oberst sings of alienation and loneliness, and at times being just downright jaded and detached—despite all the alarms and sirens scattered throughout the songs that seem to scream: Wake up!

I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning is the more stripped-down of the two albums with a sound the most similar to that of Bright Eyes’s previous albums. The production is grainy and the vocals are as raw and gritty as ever.

I'm Wide Awake is full of songs that tell stories. While the plots of each are extremely specific, their intense all-encompassing emotions—from the detached terror of “At the Bottom Of Everything” to the big-city loneliness of “Lua”—create a universal appeal.

The melodies are simple and slow, allowing one to focus in on the sophistication of the guitar techniques. The strumming is meticulous, with pauses and silences that are as stirring as the notes themselves. The songs gain an added dimension when Oberst’s vocals are accompanied by guest vocalist Emmylou Harris.

So although I’m Wide Awake is supposedly the simpler of the two releases, the universal-yet-specific lyrics and multi-faceted vocals and arrangements make this just as complicated an album as the one saturated with electronic squeals and growls. And the results are just as ear-pleasing.