Monday, Feb. 07, 2005 | 08:57
Bright Eyes - Digital Ash In A Digital Urn / I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
i think connor oberst is, or wants to be, an indie rock jeff tweedy, except more precious and contrived. while i disagree with stephen thomas erlewhine's determinedly negative assessment, i also disagree with a.p.'s double 5s. oberst is faking something, but the press, even the usually skeptical indie press (maybe especially the usually skeptical indie press), isn't picking up on it. all i can say is if oberst is his generation's spokesman (thankfully not my generation, that died with cobain), then this generation will never get off the ground. no one will ever listen to them or take them seriously. they'll always betrapped in lingering adolescence, a world of pop music and naive indie rock, a world of hopes and dreams and ignorance. a world of alcoholic haze and television daze.
the worst part is, oberst doesn't see this is what they are, but is too caught up in himself, his own world, to notice. that y generation's reality goes unremarked upon, goes unanalyzed, at least from within. it's an endless sugary confection, with no sour spots, no cancer no poison, to deflate the illusion of perfection from within. we know better, but they never will.
it's not emo, but it's still meaningless narcicissm.
i feel cheated.
Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2004 | 11:48
"what if i depend on you friend and you let me down, again"
i've got this cd by a guy called rico who, in the only review i've found of the album, is referred to as scotland's answer to trent reznor. clearly they say this because of the jagged soundscapes and generally bleak view (and anti-religion, if not anti-god, lyrics that pepper the album), and the fact that he writes, plays, and produces pretty much everything on 'sanctuary medicines'. annoyingly, this album is only available in the uk, and is the only thing rico has released. perhaps that's because he (or his label) feels this sound doesn't work so well now as it did in 1999, but i think that view is wrong. more likely the album didn't go where the label wanted it to go, and he got dropped. or perhaps he has the same writer's block issues mr. reznor suffers.
the interesting difference, however, is the positive ending. in a song about suicide, about standing on the kingston bridge with rocks in his pockets, he changes his mind and goes home. rico has a many complaints about society trying to boss him around, but he decides he can still be independent and free, and finds some silver lining in the dark cloud of dismal living. i guess glasgow's not as bleak as pennsylvania (or cleveland, where mr. reznor got his start).
