yeah it does me too. except that he's not just whining about how he hurts. sure, he's probably manic depressive, but the lyrics are complex and can have many different meanings.

but as far as the dylan comparison goes, sorry conor - no one will ever be the next dylan.

check out digital ash...digital urn if you're not into the lame acoustic guitar

Well here's the problem, the fact that a legion of incredibly insincere and crappy "emo" bands have appeared in the last decade - whining rather unconvincingly about their girlfriend eating cheese or their best friend farting or whatever it happens to be - has given some people the impression that anyone who sounds despairing or emotional is a pretentious cliched emo kid by default. However, people have been writing songs in this style for decades and I don't care how many crappy emo bands have come along it doesn't detract from the value of when someone does it well as Conor Oberst does in my opinion.

The guy's got a great voice (he does sound like a sheep on occasion right enough) and he writes great songs as far as I'm concerned and it doesn't really matter whether it's labelled "emo" or not. It's just such a ridiculous point we're at right now where if someone puts some emotion into music or attempts to take themselves seriously in any shape or form then they're labelled "emo" or "pretentious" and therefore dismissed immediately.

I quite agree with everything you say there, yet it seems that some people find his voice annoying, maybe because of the "bad emo vibes" of the past, but anyway it remains that way...

and btw I still think that Fever & Mirrors is better than the albums that followed it (I haven't heard the preceding ones yet)

After hearing "Road to Joy" recently, I picked up 'I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.' Very cool cd, and the first kind of "alt country" albums I've picked up, well, ever. His voice isn't earthshattering, but he carries his emotions through his voice well. The lyrics blew me away. They go far beneath the surface. Definetly one of the best cds I've bought in some time.

Oberst reminds me of a contemporary Gram Parsons.

5 pages full of talk and I still think drkatz nailed it on the introduction. I find it hard to say he's great as a blanket statement. Some of his songs are sheer brilliance while others are so clearly pretentious and just plain bad, that I can't listen to them. I think "Lifted" is his most consistenly good CD. I got the "Digital Urn" Cd more recently after seeing some comparisons to Postal Service. It's ok, I guess. Since then I've heard the alt country CD that came out the same day (I'm Wide Awake?) is much better.

but yeah, some absolutely genius songs, and some absolute crap songs. His lyrical content sometimes just sounds like he's trying waay too hard. "I'm the next Dylan, I'm the next Dylan! Look at me!"

Regardless, most artists never have any brilliant songs.

On Fevers & Mirrors there's a sort of fake (I think) interview piece after "An Attempt to Tip the Scales"... and besides fucking up my favourite song of that album, it's also very pretentious, be it in a mocking way or not... he talks about his use of metaphors and stuff, which would mean that he is indeed trying a bit hard sometimes, but yeah I don't mind too much if he keeps on writing at least some brilliant songs on each album

I've heard one of their better(from the reviews I read) songs, and I though it was really boring but maybe I should listen a bit more to them before spouting off...

That song btw was << Bright Eyes - Fevers And Mirrors - The Center Of The World - 04:43 >>

I like the song, though it's not one of his best, but Bright Eyes doesn't seem to me something you would like anyway... I could be wrong of course