Word: ashe
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...mass of faux-alternative artists whose gentle yet tearful lyrical confessions sell millions of records to disaffected youth squealing, “I want my MTV2!” And their duct-taped wallets are just twitching for Bright Eyes’ latest two albums, released simultaneously as Digital Ash In A Digital Urn and I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning...
It’s hard to tell how much of the music in Digital Ash is electronically produced and how much of it is just Oberst’s studio band. Either way, there’s much more here (and somehow, much less) than a boy and a guitar: the mix is thick with drums, synthesized instrumentation, and gee-wiz effects. The first track, “Time Code,” opens with two minutes of electronic noodling accompanied by bizarre background panting, presumably from an onanistic Oberst. Just in case the avant wheezing didn?...
...choice with Oberst is fairly simple: laugh at him or cry with him. Laughter is certainly the path of least resistance, especially when confronted with the two hulking new Bright Eyes albums--I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn--released simultaneously on Jan. 25. Over the course of 22 tracks, there is exactly one attempt at relative lightness--"I always get lost when I leave the Village/ So I couldn't come meet you in Brooklyn last night" (well, I chuckled)--and Oberst whispers it lest anyone notice. His emotional palette...
...Wide Awake is an example of the circumstances in which Oberst can be great, Digital Ash proves how fleeting those circumstances are. The lyrics on Digital Ash remain models of thoughtful despair, but the acoustic warmth is replaced by a series of unremarkable synthetic burps and tinny keyboard riffs. One track sounds dangerously similar to Nena's 99 Luftballons. Digital Ash rocks harder but feels emptier...
...asks, Why didn't people run like hell? Some did, it turns out, and died anyway. Others stayed, out of fatalism or simply because they didn't know what a volcanic eruption was. They watch thunderstruck as pumice falls from the sky like an otherworldly snowstorm. Later, as superheated ash cascades, it is too late to flee...