I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
| 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 | indie rock, indie folk | |||
| Length | 45:41 | |||
| Label | Saddle Creek LBJ-72 | |||
| Producer | Mike Mogis | |||
| 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.
Contents |
[edit] Songs
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". The title of the album is taken from a lyric in this song.
"We Are Nowhere and It's Now" appears in the 2007 film Knocked Up.
They achieved success in the charts when the singles "Lua" and "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)" took the top two positions in the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart in 2004, and in 2005 the band set off on a two-part world tour to promote their new albums, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. The first half of the tour promoted the folk-influenced first album, and the latter half featured the more electronic second album. Both records made it into the Top 20 of the Billboard album charts. The tour was captured on Motion Sickness, released later in the year.
[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, four-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," after which Conor counted the song in "1, 2, 666." 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 |
|---|---|
| Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks | 79 |
| metacritic.com [1] | 15 |
| Rolling Stone [2] | 8 |
| Planet Sound | 1 |
| Time [3] | 10 |
| Spin [4] | 21 |
| Blender [5] | 4 |
| Q | 5 |
It was #50 on Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Albums of the Decade" and #31 on NME's "Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade".
These opinions were not quite unanimous. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic 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] Reception
Rolling Stone: 4 / 5. link
Metacritic: 85 / 100. link
Popmatters: review.
[edit] Track listing
All songs by Conor Oberst.
1. "At the Bottom of Everything" – 4:34
- Conor Oberst - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
- Mike Mogis - Mandolin
- Tim Luntzel - Upright Bass
- Jesse Harris - Acoustic Guitar
- Jim James - Background Vocals
2. "We Are Nowhere and It's Now" – 4:12
- Conor Oberst - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
- Mike Mogis - Mandolin
- Nate Walcott - Trumpet
- Matt Maginn - Electric Bass
- Jesse Harris - Acoustic Guitar
- Jason Boesel - Drums
- Nick White - Piano
- Emmylou Harris - Background Vocals
3. "Old Soul Song (For the New World Order)" – 4:29
- Conor Oberst - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
- Mike Mogis - Pedal Steel Guitar
- Nate Walcott - Trumpet
- Tim Luntzel - Upright Bass
- Alex McManus - Electric Guitar
- Jason Boesel - Drums
- Clark Baechle - Drums
- Nick White - Hammond B-3 Organ
- Maria Taylor - Background Vocals
- Andy LeMaster - Background Vocals
4. "Lua" – 4:31
- Conor Oberst - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
5. "Train Under Water" – 6:05 Listen
- Conor Oberst - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
- Mike Mogis - Pedal Steel Guitar
- Matt Maginn - Electric Bass
- Jesse Harris - Electric Guitar
- Jason Boesel - Drums
- Nick White - Fender Rhodes Electric Piano
- Jake Bellows - Harmonica, Background Vocals
6. "First Day of My Life" – 3:08
- Conor Oberst - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
- Tim Luntzel - Upright Bass, Bowed Bass
- Jesse Harris - Acoustic Guitar
7. "Another Travelin' Song" – 4:16
- Conor Oberst - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
- Mike Mogis - Pedal Steel Guitar
- Tim Luntzel - Upright Bass
- Jesse Harris - Acoustic Guitar
- Jason Boesel - Drums
- Clark Baechle - Drums
- Nick White - Hammond B-3 Organ
- Emmylou Harris - Background Vocals
8. "Landlocked Blues" – 5:47
- Conor Oberst - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
- Nate Walcott - Trumpet
- Tim Luntzel - Upright Bass
- Jesse Harris - Acoustic Guitar
- Nick White - Piano, Vibraphone
- Emmylou Harris - Background Vocals
9. "Poison Oak" – 4:39
- Conor Oberst - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
- Mike Mogis - Pedal Steel Guitar
- Matt Maginn - Electric Bass
- Jason Boesel - Drums
- Nick White - Hammond B-3 Organ
- Maria Taylor - Background Vocals
10. "Road to Joy" – 3:54
- Conor Oberst - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
- Mike Mogis - 12 String Electric Guitar
- Nate Walcott - Trumpet
- Matt Maginn - Electric Bass
- Alex McManus - Electric Guitar
- Clark Baechle - Drums
- Nick White - Hammond B-3 Organ
[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, 2, 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://www.nme.com/list/the-top-100-greatest-albums-of-the-decade/158049/page/7
- http://billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000723891, Todd Martens, L.A.
