Trystan's Best #20: Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

Released: January 25th, 2005

Most people love to hate Conor Oberst these days, mostly as a result of the tidal wave of fandom caused by this album, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, his alt-folk opus. "Oh my God! I can't possibly like something that EVERYBODY likes!" was the subconscious reaction of most. But music-elitist-bullshit aside, this is Oberst with sharpened words and a trained hand, cutting as deep and as effectively as ever. His voice quivers and wains and yelps its way through perfect songs like "Land Locked Blues" and "Another Travelin' Song", while lyrically reflecting the four-more-years-of-bush vibe that most Americans were feeling at the time (the album came out a mere five days after Bush's second term began). While "First Day Of My Life" might turn into a first-dance-at-the-wedding staple and subsequently into a song we will all hate, no one will ever forget the shivers they got from the final freakout of "Road To Joy".