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I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

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Untitled

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.

This album is the 72nd release of Saddle Creek Records.

Songs

The single for "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.

Social Commentary: "At the Bottom of Everything"

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.

Critical response

I'm Wide Awake It's Morning received mostly positive reviews from music critics around the country. 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
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."

Track listing

All songs by Conor Oberst.

  1. "At the Bottom of Everything" – 4:32
  2. "We Are Nowhere and It's Now" – 4:11
  3. "Old Soul Song (For the New World Order)" – 4:29
  4. "Lua" – 4:30
  5. "Train Under Water" – 6:06 Listen
  6. "First Day of My Life" – 3:08
  7. "Another Travelin' Song" – 4:15
  8. "Landlocked Blues" – 5:46
  9. "Poison Oak" – 4:38
  10. "Road to Joy" – 3:53

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.

References

  1. http://billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000723891, Todd Martens, L.A.
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