I just looked up Bright Eyes on Allmusic and found that they consider "I'm wide awake" ... well ... overrated trash! And that's putting it kindly. On AM, that album is way above anything else they (he) ever did, and I was under the impression that this reflects the general consensus (that's sort of what the "A" in AM stands for).

Any ideas? Is Allmusic just being quirky here? Or did all those reviewers just get carried away by each other's hype, and the album'll drop straight out of AM in a few update's time?

(Speaking of which - I haven't been around for a long while, but Henrik's work is still awesome!).

Allmusic is only one opinion and does not always reflect the general consensus, as your example shows. Sometimes they do update album ratings in order to align with the consensus (as they did with many 5 star updates recently), but I have no idea if they will do this for I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. Remember that All Music is not like Acclaimed Music in that it does not only tries to reflect the consensus of an album; they review albums at the same time everyone else does, so on the first review they are only giving their opinion, with little attempt to reflect the reviews from other critics.

As for I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning dropping out of the Acclaimed Music, it is very safe to say that that will never happen. It is safely established as one of the top albums of the 2000s. The critics haven't really backed off the album, either, since it did well in the end of decade polls, albeit with a slight drop from where it initially was. So All Music is indeed the exception, not the norm, in this case.

Thanks Evan, you confirm what I assumed to be the case :-)

I've listened quite a lot to Bright Eyes over the years, and I would consider Lifted to be their best work by far. When I'm Wide Awake was released it got a lot of attention from the press, and found its way to the charts, while the earlier albums got more or less overlooked. For example: I'm Wide awake peaked at number 10 in USA and number 9 in Norway, while Lifted peaked as number 161 in USA and never reached the top 40 in Norway. They were still an underground phenomena.

I would rank the Bright Eyes albums as this, from best to worst (excluding the last one, which I haven't heard):

1) Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
2) Fevers and Mirrors
3) Letting Off the Happiness
4) I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
5) Cassadaga
6) A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997
7) Digital Ash in a Digital Urn

Thanks, Rune. I'll go out and get hold of lifted. They'll be hitting our neighbourhood (if counting Norway and Denmark as one neighbourhood makes sense) this summer, I hear.

definitely think "Lifted" is the best album... now what do you guys think is the best bright eyes song?

I'm a bigger fan of "I'm Wide Awake", but "Lifted" is excellent too.

My favorite song is Land Locked Blues.

Lifted is his masterpiece for sure. It's one of the best of the 00's. Fever and Mirrors is really good as well. For me, after those two albums it's a huge dropoff and I don't think I'd give any other Bright Eyes or Conor Oberst album more than a below average rating.

My favorite song would either be False Advertising or Something Vague.

"Lifted" sure is intrigueing