Bright Eyes – When the Curious Girl Realizes She is Under Glass
Everyone my age went through their Bright Eyes phase somewhere around the eighth grade, after which Conor Oberst’s pitchless self-deprecation became not only hard to swallow but hard to stomach at all. There will always be the strength of his lyrics, it’s clear, but Bright Eyes’s earlier work is an especially good example of digging through the rough (& sometimes the very rough) to find the diamonds; “When the Curious Girl” is almost unarguably one of those diamonds. The shifty background noise, lo-fi distance, & stripped down singular piano work all work perfectly to frame the equal parts hurt & desire in Oberst’s words, & the little sound effects are just the icing that this cake needs. It’s a tough song to feel, but with further listens it becomes more worth the effort.
