Lua- Bright Eyes

What’s up with me and choosing songs by people who can’t sing? For my next song analysis, my victim is Lua by Bright Eyes. This is singer/songwriter Conor Oberst’s most popular song, and for good reason. His lack of...well...tune in this particular song emphasises the mood of the lyric, which are quite stunning. At the end of each verse, Conor shows how in the morning everything of the evening looks different. “Supplies are endless in the evening by the morning they’ll be gone.” He frequently references self abuse, in the forms of alcohol, drugs, and eating disorders. Pair that with the sad tone and realizing that the self abuse only leads to more pain and it’s evident that he realized there has to be Something better out there. Maybe not in those exact words, but he’s getting there.

Conor speaks of loneliness (“When everything is lonely I can be my own best friend”), his inability to love fully (“But me, I’m not a gamble you can count on my to split. The love I sell you in the evening by the morning wont exist”), the eating of disorders of his girlfriend, and his drinking habit. Even though he seems to be living the life that so many people long for, he still feels hopelessness. Only God can fill this void that he tries filling with sex, drinking, drugs, ect. God has programmed us all to be this way, to want purpose and love and value, but only in Him can we find those things. I love how repeatedly Bright Eyes speaks of wanting worth or purpose, and how sex, drugs, and alcohol cannot fulfill that. Some say it’s trashy music for it’s content, but when heard with the right ears, it’s evident how must the author wants a Savior. “The mask I polish in the evening by the morning looks like shit”–he even admits to acting like he has it all together, but in the morning he sees how absurd it is. What a wonderful contrast to the hope we have in Christ, “Weeping may spend the night, but there is joy in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

-Becca