Bright Eyes review: Down In the Weeds, Where the World Once Was is another classic to brood to
Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy It’s 20 years since Conor Oberst made his name with Bright Eyes’ intensely raw album Fevers and Mirrors. The drama is still there, too, from the grandiose orchestral backing to the doom-laden lyrics such as “Got to keep on going like it ain’t the end/ Got to change like your life is depending on it”, and “Catastrophizing my birthday/ Turning forty/ Ending up like everyone”. The downbeat “One and Done” blends the electronic percussion of 2005’s Digital Ash in a Digital Urn with melodramatic strings, off-kilter piano, and the sweetness of harmonising backing vocals, while the build-up to urgent, syncopated brass and rolling drums on “Mariana Trench” is redolent of The National. “Life’s a solitary song/ No one to clap or sing along/ It sounds so sweet and then it’s gone/ So suddenly”, Oberst sings, the “suddenly” heralding the abrupt ending of the song.
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