Bright Eyes
- Duane Smets
- Feb 1, 2005
- Series: Music
Two new Bright Eyes albums to be released later this month! From the band that brought you beautiful music and lyrics like, “And try to just keep moving on, with my broken heart and my absent God and I have no faith but it is all I want, to be loved and believe in my soul.” comes two new amazing albums: I’m Wide Awake Its Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn.
I work at a record store so I as able to get a sneak listen these new releases and am in awe. Conor Oberst is the musical and lyrical genius behind bright eyes who directs an accompany of all kinds of instruments from oboes and fiddles to guitars, keyboards, drums, and many others.
I’m Wide Awake Its Morning has a more folk sound too it focusing on acoustical guitar and a crispness of rough vocals. Digital Ash in a Digital Urn is more produced and incorporates more electronical experimentations. One song in particular off "I’m Wide Awake Its Morning" has been hammering its music and verse in my head with thoughts and feelings of sadness, anger, and hope. Its called, “One Foot in Front of the Other.” The song’s lyrics are too long to put here, but here’s a snippet:
And I'm drinking the ink from my pen And I'm balancing history books up on my head And it all boils down to one quotable phrase "If you love something, give it away."
A good woman would pick you apart A box full of suggestions for a possible heart And you may be offended, you may be afraid But don't walk away, don't walk away
We made love on the living room floor With the noise in the background From televised war And a defeaning pleasure I thought I heard someone say "If we walk away, they'll walk away."
But greed is a bottomless pit And all freedom's a joke, we're just taking a piss And the whole world must watch The sad comic display If you're still free, start running away 'Cuz we're coming for ya We're gonna read them out
I've grown tried of holding this pose I feel more like a stranger each time I come home So I'm making a deal with the devils of fame Saying "Let me walk away, please."
The metaphor of love and war is not a new one but is displayed in this song with a vividness of honesty and conflict which is difficult to come by. It is reported that Oberst wrote this song shortly after the war in Iraq started and had moved to Manhattan.
Throughout Bright Eyes music we encounter the world of one who is disturbed and often left without resolution. As a Christian I marvel at the honesty of one who recognizes their need for God but admits they do not believe and have no hope of believing. In this new album, the meaninglessness of money and the right of freedom and choice is denounced and love is prized as something valuable to be cherished.
For Christians Oberst delivers a challenge to how we relate to one another as human beings. In love relationships and in those relationships which are more extended, are we more quick to draw our weapons or to embrace? Christ calls us to be tender-hearted, forgiving one another. Conflict will surely arise in all sectors of life. How we deal with it matters to God.
The major difference between a Christian worldview and the one expressed by Bright eyes is hope. Instead of a nihilistic deadness, where we are caught in a vicious cycle, we have hope because Christ has conquered death and given us hope for something better in this life and the one to come.
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