Bright Eyes opens “I’m Wide Awake, it’s Morning” with a story being recited by Conor Oberst about a woman who’s a passenger on an airplane, sitting next to a stranger, when all of a sudden, the plane begins to plummet down towards the Earth. She asks the gentleman next to her “Where are we going?” and he replies, “To a birthday party, your birthday party, we love you very much.” Strangers suddenly become friendly and interested in conversation when you share something in common, like being on the verge of death.
What has become one of my personal favorite openings to my favorite album of all time, “At the Bottom of Everything” feels like the band’s manifesto for the album, ending in lyrics, “Oh my morning’s coming back, the whole world’s waking up. All the city buses swimming past, I’m happy just because I found out I am really no one.”
“I’m Wide Awake, it’s Morning,” Bright Eyes’ most tragic and possibly their most universally loved album turned 20 on January 25. Formed in 1995, hailing from Omaha, the band’s primary members include Oberst, Mike Mogis, Nate Walcott and some other rotating members.
“Lua” is one of the softer, more melodic pieces that was for me at first, hidden in the middle of the project but has easily become my favorite and most revisited track.
I first listened to Lua while walking to one of my classes a few winters ago. I remember hearing Lua a couple times before in some unspecified basement or a restaurant but on this day, I decided to revisit this entire album by myself. When Lua came on, I was hit with a moment of realization and my eyes began to well. I had to stand still in the cold weather for a few minutes, almost late.
On Lua Oberst writes “the love I sell you in the evening by the morning won’t exist,” — referencing Oberst’s addiction. Sometimes things have a tendency of looking more inviting in the nighttime only to wake up afraid or rattled by decisions you’ve made in the dark. Lua picks apart and references the challenges of being in love while in active addiction, not remembering moments, decisions made or even a lover’s face.
On, “First Day of My Life,” the song that got me into Bright Eyes originally, the narrator’s perception of the morning and the daytime changes. The morning becomes a place in time where parts of his life can be changed, symbolic of a nihilistic view on the world in Lua; on “First Day of my Life” the sun instead becomes a symbol of hope. “This is the first day of my life swear I was born right in the doorway I went out in the rain, suddenly everything changed. They’re spreading blankets on the beach.”
All hope seems to be momentarily lost in “Landlocked Blues,” referencing heartbreak and similar feelings of seeking solace. On the track, Oberst has it all, almost. He has a house, a wife or girlfriend (described as Laura) but is missing a sense of his identity and a sense of adventure.
Through lyrics Oberst explains he is dreaming of sailing away on a boat somewhere new and surprising but is landlocked, resorting to drinking to mask this need. He says things will get better if he leaves his home and relationship, although not knowing where he’s meant to go, having hope that something in his life will change if he decides to be alone and get lost somewhere new.
“Road to Joy,” the final song on the 10-track album, referencing Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” ends on a more positive note, sonically, while lyrics still lie somewhere in between. The concluding track once again references the morning, with a melancholic feel. “The sun came up with no conclusions, Flowers sleeping in their beds, The city’s cemeteries humming, I’m wide awake, it’s morning.”
On “I’m Wide Awake, it’s Morning” Oberst moves from referencing scenarios where these feelings seem to be a product of his environment or actions and moments where they are a fated product of life itself. At times, I am unsure of which is which – but this makes the album all the more meaningful to me. It’s hard to pin down an overall feeling behind this but I understand it as a road that leads somewhere in between pessimism and hope.
Bright Eyes is currently on tour, stopping in Madison on April 3 and Chicago on April 5.
This story was written by Sofía Cortés. She can be reached at [email protected].
