I was drawn to this record by the glowing reviews it had been getting in the bigs. I'm afraid I don't quite understand what all the fuss is about. On Lifted, his third, Conor Oberst ambitions outstretch his gift. Something of a concept album emerges here, but in my book the concept is all pretense. Oberst sounds a good deal like Robert Smith in his earlier Cure days, but all the passion seems processed to me. He takes a sharp me-against-the-messed-up-world approach and, though there are some noteworthy lyrical passages, there are precious few moments of compelling tunesmanship. I'm not ready to write the guy off, but if this is the Bright future, I'm going to wear my shades.