I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
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| I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning | |||||
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| Studio album by Bright Eyes | |||||
| Released | January 25, 2005 | ||||
| Recorded | February 2004: Presto! Recording Studios - Lincoln, Nebraska | ||||
| Genre | Folk rock Indie rock Country |
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| Length | 45:41 | ||||
| Label | Saddle Creek LBJ-72 | ||||
| Producer | Mike Mogis | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
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| Bright Eyes chronology | |||||
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I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning is one of two Bright Eyes albums (along with Digital Ash in a Digital Urn) released on January 25, 2005, by Saddle Creek Records.
The album is the 72nd release of Saddle Creek Records.
Contents |
[edit] Songs
The single "Lua" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales Chart.
The music video for "First Day of My Life" was directed by John Cameron Mitchell.
Road To Joy contains an interpolation of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".
"We Are Nowhere and It's Now" appears in the 2007 film Knocked Up. The popular song was inspired by a 15 year old Houston boy named Parker Jensen under the alias of Banks Himself. Young Jensen wrote a poem which he gave to Conor Oberst at a restaurant in Austin, which led to the creation of the hit song.
[edit] Social commentary
Like the two Bright Eyes albums before it, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning opens with a spoken recording, this time by Conor Oberst himself. The monologue is a short story about two strangers on an airplane that is about to fall into the ocean. Nearing the crash, one of the passengers begins to sing, "At the Bottom of Everything," the opening song of the album. The simple, three-chord folk song is one of Oberst's trademark sarcastic social commentaries on American ideals: "We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul. And in this endless race for property and privilege to be won, we must run..."
This song made its television debut on the April 30, 2004 episode of Late Late Show. The short story was replaced with a dedication to the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the President of the United States, George W. Bush. "Two men I admire a lot," declared Oberst, "for their biceps and for their creepy, fascist agendas." The conclusion of the story during the bridge was replaced by Oberst shouting "M. Ward for president!"
A music video directed by Cat Solen and starring Evan Rachel Wood and Terence Stamp was later made for the song, based on the story in its introduction, which remained intact.
[edit] Critical response
I'm Wide Awake It's Morning received very positive reviews from music critics on both sides of the Atlantic. It was placed in the following 'best of' lists for the year 2005:
| Critic/publication | Rank |
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| Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks | 79 |
| metacritic.com [1] | 15 |
| Rolling Stone [2] | 8 |
| Planet Sound | 1 |
| Rock Zone (Spain) | 15 |
| Time [3] | 10 |
| Spin [4] | 21 |
| Blender [5] | 4 |
These opinions were not quite unanimous. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide criticized Oberst's "heavy-handed pretension in the words and [...] affectedness in his delivery," calling the album proof that "instead of reaching musical maturity, he's wallowing in a perpetual adolescence." A negative review from Keith Harris of The Village Voice also found the record to be "a mess, and not just sonically."
[edit] Track listing
All songs by Conor Oberst.
- "At the Bottom of Everything" – 4:34
- "We Are Nowhere and It's Now" – 4:12
- "Old Soul Song (For the New World Order)" – 4:29
- "Lua" – 4:31
- "Train Under Water" – 6:05 Listen
- "First Day of My Life" – 3:08
- "Another Travelin' Song" – 4:16
- "Landlocked Blues" – 5:47
- "Poison Oak" – 4:39
- "Road to Joy" – 3:54
[edit] Personnel
Note: I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn are the first Bright Eyes albums on which Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott became the three permanent members of Bright Eyes.
- Conor Oberst – guitar, vocals
- Mike Mogis – mandolin, pedal steel guitar 12 string guitar (tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10)
- Nick White – piano, organ, rhodes, vibraphone (tracks 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- Jesse Harris – guitar (tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8)
- Tim Luntzel – bass (tracks 1, 3, 6, 7, 8)
- Jason Boesel – drums (tracks 2, 3, 5, 7, 9)
- Matt Maginn – bass (tracks 2, 5, 9, 10)
- Nate Walcott – trumpet (tracks 2, 3, 8, 10)
- Clark Baechle – drums (tracks 3, 7, 10)
- Emmylou Harris – vocals (tracks 2, 7, 8)
- Alex McManus – guitar (track 3)
- Maria Taylor – vocals (tracks 3, 9)
- Jake Bellows – harmonica, vocals (track 5)
- Jim James – vocals (track 1)
- Andy LeMaster – vocals (track 3)
[edit] References
- http://billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000723891, Todd Martens, L.A.
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