What makes Conor's descent in banal lyrics so depressing is that his authentic voice that he has traded in for the pseudo-Bob-Dylan-protest-sound contained some of the most damning critiques in modern music. One of my favorite songs, not just of Conor but all musicians, is "Landlocked Blues" in which he utters:

"And there’s kids playing guns in the street

And ones pointing his tree branch at me

So I put my hands up I say “enough is enough,

If you walk away, I’ll walk away”

And he shot me dead"

Which is followed a little later by:

"We made love on the living room floor

With the noise in the background of a televised war

And in the deafening pleasure I thought I heard someone say

'If we walk away, they’ll walk away'"

The juxtapositions used evoke the futility and senselessness of war in a very meaningful way. It's shame that he abandoned metaphors and irony for literalism of "when the President talks to God [...] agree which convicts should be killed?"

We miss you Conor. Please, come back.

The guys we think of as authentic didn't start out that way, they got that way by getting old. Bob Dylan? I guess Zimmerman just didn't sound folky and heartland enough. Oberst may seem like he's re-inventing himself now, but in 30 years, if he's still around, he'll be as authentic as Springsteen and Neil Young. For that matter, just look at some of Young's bloopy 80s experiments in trying to reinvent himself.

And as for us as music fans getting old, the music we come across now will never impact us as much as the music that shaped our formative years. I still get misty when I hear Joy Division, but I can't even imagine getting that emotionally attached to anything coming out now - and I still listen to lots of new bands and new albums from older bands. It's not them, it's me.

"Music used to mean so much to me, it don't mean that much to me no more."

Bob Forrest, Thelonious Monster

Let' talk about When the President for a minute:

"When the President Talks to God," sounds more childish than even his most narcissistic teenage material..." writes Berman.

Really? When i hear this song i am still impressed because Oberst is tackling a subject i have never heard discussed in song nor in most political discourse: this supposed personal relationship between Bush and God. Oberst is going into the head of Bush and imagining what this conversation sounds like, he isn't saying Bush Rapes Women's rights, he is saying God told him to do this. Is there a more angry line then this rarely quoted stab:

When the president talks to God

I wonder which one plays the better cop

We should find some jobs. the ghetto's broke

No, they're lazy, George, I say we don't

Just give 'em more liquor stores and dirty coke

That's what God recommends

Is there a song out there that is tackling this subject, that is suggesting that Bush is content letting drugs and poverty ravish the poor because it is part of God's plan?

I haven't heard anyone give it enough thought to begin to grasp what is going on in this song, and this is the problem with Oberst dissin' critics. Cassadaga is no good? Have you sat with Everything Must Belong Somewhere? Woody Guthrie would be grinning ear to ear if he heard that. Digital Ash is a failure? Tell me a song that tackles the dark and distorted nightmare of substance abuse better than Rabbit Hole. Etc.

The point is there really is no good vs. bad Oberst, and if you need a bit of time to digest the fact that he is a once-in-a-generation gift, then don't forget to go back once you've settled on the fact and soak it all up. I mean, did you ever imagine the first time you heard him sing "i do not read the reviews, i am not singing for you," that you would become that person?

Thanks for writing this article. It's so comforting to know that someone else had a tortuous mental love affair, probably equally plagued with self-conciousness and tearful midnight driving through the suburbs singalongs, as I did. I used to check the weather in Omaha before going to school every morning so I could imagine either imagine him in a vintage T-shirt, Granpa sweater, or pea coat as I stood waiting for the school bus. Before leaving my advance poetry class, I'd take out my CD player and notch up the volume on whichever or his early records I was listening to that day. When I went to see him live, back in his small venue days, he accidentally spit on me, and it was the high point of my young life. When I came down with a cold, a few days later, I liked to think I had gotten the cold from him, that my body was housing the same germs that incubated in his.

I experience mirror disillusionment by the doe-eyed beauty's attempt at reinventing himself as a hard-boiled, road wearied man who's been through the wringer. It's unfortunate he can't embrace his fey, priviledged roots, like so many good bands have.

That said, I don't think I'll ever love anyone with the same kind of innocent purity with which I loved Conor, embarassed as I may have been by that passion.

When I first heard it I was in college and it fit in well with what I was feeling, and the music and lyrics were very striking. I think Lifted was and is very powerful, the turns of phrase that Oberst is able to create at times are very beautiful.

I also saw Bright Eyes back in 2002 when they were still more independent and underground. But, as with most things, the band got bigger and the shows became choked with screaming teenage girls. The situation seemed to be more manipulative of the audience as time went on, whereas before it seemed like musicians interested in sharing music. In 2002 there were thirty people in the audience, in 2006 it was 500+.

All artists and people go through changes and mature in different ways and at different times. The new album may be an awkward way of moving into more adult work- Oberst's way of finding his feet as he matures. I'm still interesting in listening to it, though.

I also think it's the maturation of a generation that's happening here. The things we listened to in college and at the end of high school- that was years ago, and our responses will change, as will our expectations. I also think that the indie/emo period of music is waning, and in fact probably hit it's peak around the time "Lifted" was released. New bands with the "emo" tag and appearance seem inauthentic and market based. As with every new decade and new generation of musicians, there will be a change coming soon.