Bright Eyes

"The end of the paralysis

I was a statuette

Now I'm drunk as hell on a piano bench

And when I press the keys

It all gets reversed

The sound of loneliness makes me happier"

These words are from Bright Eyes' song Poison Oak. Every time I listen to this album, I am taken aback and forced to listen admiringly. His voice is shaken and ugly in every way in the classical convention, but that is not the point of it. Bright Eyes is comparable to Dylan, he too was ugly and for that he was given a god-like status. They have something that no one else has, a self-conscious view that they bi-pass. "To thy own self be true", they could not succeed without this. What makes them good is their lyrics, "a picture is worth a thousand words", but a thousand words are to much for a song. They create images out of metaphors and other literary devices, so their songs are worth more than a thousand words; and this is by far the hardest thing to create. I applaud you Conner.