Bright Eyes
I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
[Saddle Creek; 2005]
Rating 8.7

Once the textbook definition of adolescent "emocore," Omaha singer/songwriter Conor Oberst redefines himself with this Americana masterpiece. The album perfectly recounts his first memories of staying in New York City, and the metropolis rarely gets a folk singer to chronicle its streets this lucidly; he frequents its parties and stumbles down its streets like a midwestern transplant instead of a jaded hipster, weaving the personal and the political more fluidly than most singers even care to try-- and the consummate tunefulness just strengthens those moments where he pinches a nerve.