These have been quite some times for Conor Oberst. Until recently working away in his own little world, of late he’s been flirting with the mainstream to such a degree that he even ended up on the same pre-election bill as Springsteen and REM. All of which seems to have led him to try his hand at that great rock star folly – the twin album release.
The two inhabit a different place – I’m Wide Awake… largely acoustic, Digital Ash heading down a band led, electronic route. Both start off in fine fashion, the former with the story telling of ‘At The Bottom Of Everything’, the latter with a run of quirky yet tellingly melodic songs. Then there’s some more of the same and then….well, you get the picture. By about two thirds of the way through, you begin to wish that Oberst could have found a way of maybe combining these two sides of his personality.
Although the two records complement each other nicely, unfortunately the overall impression is that the material here would have been a lot more impressive had it been edited down into a single album.