cigarettes and ludes

I love the bar for many different reasons. A small one being that every once in a while you’ll drunkly get into a conversation about something actually worth talking about. For instance, I met a decently hot girl (I know, not my proudest accomplishment) drinking and one thing led to another until we eventually started doing it on occasion. (No pun intended.) And I mention all of this, not to make myself look bad for continuing on with only a decently hot chick but because there is one conversation I can remember clearly. She asked me if I liked Bright Eyes and what my favorite album was. Without really thinking I told her Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. She didn’t agree this was the best album but still loved it nonetheless. (It’s hard to find a fan who doesn’t like Digital Ash.) From this moment on I knew where the conversation was headed. A crash course in Bright Eyes history 101, with the worst history teacher in the world. Most know that Oberst released two albums on the same day in early 2005. I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn.

Both albums contrast one another in musical style, one being the “light” and one being the “dark”. Which is just my easy way of putting it, I’m sure theres some passionate metalanguage for describing the two. I know she would have known how to say it. I didn’t ask her opinion on the matter but I just sort of figured the conversation would steer that way after I said it. It didn’t. (Maybe she didn’t have a better way of saying it either… or maybe she thought I was an idiot?) Instead, she rather importantly felt the need to express why she would never look at Bright Eyes the same again. That dreadful day when she bought both albums and listened to them both start to finish in the Best Buy parking lot after buying them. She let me know that she would never look at Bright Eyes the same after hearing I’m Wide Awake and not in a good way. To her this was Oberst, “jumping the shark”. Now, it’s not to say she isn’t right although, I don’t really see it, lots feel that way I’m sure. My problem was her opinions weren’t based on logical or even rational reasoning. There was a blatant personal vendetta. When she was explaining I could see she looked betrayed. To her, Morning is when Oberst “let go” of everything Bright Eyes was all about. When I asked her what it’s all about, she never really had a clear answer. Instead she told me about her days in high school when everything Oberst had sung about played like a window into her entire life and her everyday interactions. Some girls had Kelly Clarkson others worshiped Green Day some had Conor Oberst. Which I understand, not to speak in fairy-tale terms here but people connect to music. I’m not sure if she didn’t think I know this or not but the biggest thing was that her opinion was dominate. Which is funny looking back on it because I wasn’t even really trying to argue with her about it. Maybe she was just cryptically trying to boost her hip-cred by explaining how long she had been a fan, which is always bad. I’m not sure which is worse just coming out and saying it or being tricky.

We talked and talked until it actually got to a point where they’re was becoming this weird tension. I kept re-iterating that Oberst wasn’t a sellout because he changed his style and you didn’t like it. How any band has to at least try and progress. She kept saying she understood that but (I’m assuming) was never able to come to terms with it. She kept using the word, “personally” and, “to me” to defend her point, which got pretty annoying. Eventually we debated for too long, let it go, moved on, but the tension still lingered. Like we had both just learned something new and unsettling about each other. This was unspoken of course, and we just carried on with the night drinking and enjoying it. Looking back I am very surprised with just how much I learned about her from one conversation that could have ended with just a, ‘yes, I do like them’ response. Now, this wasn’t some life changing moment that came with incredible insight, where the moral of the story is: HUH, ISN’T IT FUNNY HOW LIFE IS?! AND WORDS AND WHAT THEY DO?!

It relates because, Bright Eyes’ newest and final album is on it’s way (actually it’s already leaked) and the conversation I had above, is what’s to come. Fans are going to split in two directions. Actually maybe three. The die-hards who like it but are still disappointed because of it progression (and hate anyone who says it’s the really amazing), the regular listeners who will always love Bright Eyes but consider it a mediocre album and those who love it. Maybe their are more ways (like the ‘I don’t care group’), I’m not even sure where I stand. I haven’t listened to The People’s Key enough to formulate an opinion, granted I don’t really have a lot of positive things to say about it I also don’t have any negative things to say about it either. It’s recognition goes without question in any case, this is Oberst’s last effort before putting Bright Eyes six feet under and moving on to other projects that sound, in a lot of ways, just like it. Even I can’t deny though, classic Bright Eyes will officially feel like the past and will gratefully always be there to show how Oberst became considered one of the most important artists of our modern days.  ’Shell Games’ is the albums first single (above), and one of the best of the short ten.

Since that night, me and the girl haven’t seen each other. Lucky for me I won’t have to see her crying face and pretend to be comforting. Amazing timing. Unfortunately, were no longer banging.