Bright Eyes, genius or sell out? Options

[william]

i decided to make a topic about bright eyes since he has now fully broken into the mainstream (#10 and #15 on the billboard charts!).

for those of you who haven't heard of him, bright eyes is a band fronted by conor oberst, where he is the only constant (the backing band lineup is always changing). he recently came out with two cds that were released simultaneously on the 15th of january- i'm wide awake it's morning (a folky singer song writer album) and digital ash in a digital urn (a synthy techno pop album). the first is the one critics seem to be favoring (and is also selling more), while the latter is still faring well with the critics and people alike.

personally, i love bright eyes. i heard about him about two years ago, but that's when i was still obsessing with weezer, and his music seemed too weird for me. this summer when i was at best buy though, i decided to pick up fevers and mirrors to see what all the fuss was about. i loved it. since then i've bought almost every cd he's released, and they're all genius.

so, what do you guys think of him? lyric genius and next bob dylan? or talentless and overrated?


ps- i know there's an old topic on this, but it didn't seem very relevant. if you do want to close this and have me bump that one though... be my guest.