Bright Eyes

Item: Digital Ash in a Digital Urn
Author: Peter Veness

Digital Ash in a Digital Urn

(2005)

Reviewed by Peter Veness

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Label Saddle Creek RecordsDecapolisMarch 2005

electronic indie rock singer-songwriter

When Dillinger Escape Plan said irony was a dead scene you could, if you strained, hear the tender whisper of Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst urging them on.

For Oberst is the necessary antidote to our floodlit fields of irony and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn is the second, vibrating and haunting vial of sincerity from the Omaha outfit fronted by Oberst - released alongside the Americana of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.

24-year-old Oberst is deliberately and effectively tearing down the wall still being finished by The Killers and Franz Ferdinand and their slew of post-irony nu-rock shmucks. Sure, they can all write a song but they left their hearts in 1977 with David Byrne.

Oberst was in junior high when Nevermind came out and it had a profound impact on the almost twee, punk blooded singer songwriter - the sincere political and social frustration of Cobain comes out on Digital Ash but Oberst also has a rare hope the grunge movement never found.

The hope is Oberst's reason for being, even if it is almost always smothered by his musings on death, frustrated trysts and the conservative claustrophobia gripping his homeland.

Digital Ash is not artistically risky but if we reward only risk we're in danger of becoming obsessed with adrenaline and its catalyst, instant gratification. Bright Eyes were never about sonic risk but always emotional risk.

Lyrically, this is Oberst's most oblique work, but musically it offers some of his most direct hooks. The jungle pulse of 'Arc of Time' will force your feet into rhythm with your pulse and 'Light Pollution's' wonderfully hopeful almost 80s sound and car crash lyrics juxtapose as well as a still beating heart on snow. 'Down in a Rabbit Hole' is mighty. The trigger drum opening and shorted out guitar should never sit so comfortably with gently elegiac strings but Oberst's quavering voice is a warm and wonderful blanket across everything and Azure Ray's Maria Taylor folds the song's frayed ending with her curious, veiled vocals.

Oberst's lyrical over-honesty condemns and resuscitates, he is a rare, visceral and wonderful talent who should be nurtured, celebrated and welcomed into the moments of life best scored by sound.

3.5/4