Bright Eyes - Lua

Lua is a beautiful CD single from Bright Eyes' 2005 I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning release. It contains Lua and three songs that do not appear on I'm Wide Awake. The final song, True Blue, also also appears live on the new Motion Sickness disc. I'll review the disc by addressing each song.

Lua

Songs like this are the reason I love Bright Eyes. It's just Conor and his guitar, sweetly singing us a story that you won't hear anywhere else in pop music. In just four verses Conor weaves together a story of two people stumbling together through a life of parties, drugs, and drinking on trains. Though these two characters' names and faces are never revealed, every layer of their dangerous and necessary relationship is. Every word that Conor pens and sings is deliberate and contains miles more depth than some entire albums that will sell millions this year.

Well Whiskey

"And just when I got fed up with the gray sky the sun came out of nowhere like a bar fight. And it knocked out the wind and it bruised me with light." This line, buried deep within Well Whiskey, nearly knocked me off my feet. I was half-listening to the song and the line jumped out of my speakers, causing me to drop everything. Who else in music today can pen a line like 'the sun came out of nowhere like a bar fight'? Though Well Whiskey as a whole is my least favorite song on Lua, it is no doubt a well-crafted country rock ballad.

I Woke Up With This Song In My Head This Morning

A Bright Eyes song not written by Conor Oberst! I don't think I've ever seen that before. Alex Mcmanus, who plays guitar and sings in Bright Eyes, wrote this one. And it just happens to be my favorite on Lua. The lyrics are sweet in a pop way, and even though they are more ambigous than Conor's lyrics you can't help but love them. Alex joins Conor in the chorus, which sounds like no other Bright Eyes music. This a simple, genuine pop song that will eat your heart.

True Blue

I've already written about this song when it came out on Motion Sickness. It goes about like this:

I am a blue blood. I will admit that. I dance in blue shoes and wear a blue hat. Live in a blue on a blue street, in a blue town by a blue creek... now I don't know much about you but I like you because you are true blue.

How, you ask, can Conor manage to make that idea last an entire song? I don't know, but he does. Most other artists would fumble, but True Blue is truly a timeless song and fitting end to 16 minutes of Bright Eyes bliss.