Bright Eyes
Digital Ash In A Digital Urn
(Saddle Creek)

Digital Ash in a Digital Urn is supposed to be the more "experimental" of the two simultaneously-released Bright Eyes albums, and to that end is very much built on electronic music. The album opens in a wash of synthetic sound panning around like some eerie digital wind before bursting into outmoded beat box sounds and shimmering keyboard drone. Combine that with Conor Oberst's trademark downcast vocals and some effective ambient noise, and you've got one hell of an opener. But then again, Bright Eyes always uses a sort of confounding track to open their records. In many respects, both Digital Ash and I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning represent a big advancement in Conor Oberst's songwriting. While on Lifted... he seemed to be struggling with the sincerity of being the same alienated adolescent of Fevers and Mirrors in light of all the personal success, on these records there is a balance of happy and sad. Tracks like "Arc of Time" are decidedly upbeat, both lyrically and musically, and provide a welcome counterbalance to the heavy, depressing songs like "Down a Rabbit Hole," which evokes "Lover I Don't Have to Love" in its darkness and deep sense of emotional confusion and despair.

The songs get positive with "Take it Easy (Love Nothing)" released as a single for the record. Probably the best song on the record is "I Believe in Symmetry," which is easily the most rock-oriented on either of the two records, with enough groove to have your ass shaking for hours. The album closes with what could be considered the most traditionally Bright Eyes song on the record, "Easy/Lucky/Free" which is a brilliant dissertation on what it means to be a socially conscious American with conflicted feelings about your country, your role in it, and its role in the world.

Digital Ash in a Digital Urn is a great record, of the two it is probably the better. Of the two, it is the one most likely to appeal to people who haven't really liked Bright Eyes before, and Bright Eyes fans who appreciated songs like "Lover I Don't Have to Love" and "Loose Leaves" will appreciate the direction that this record takes. Recommend it to your friends who liked the Postal Service but haven't listened to or haven't enjoyed Bright Eyes before.

-Dan


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