Most childhood stars see their careers burn out before they can legally drive a car, rather than make the difficult transition to adult-icon status. Perhaps today's rising young celebrities should look to Conor Oberst, the one-man mastermind behind Saddle Creek Record's most successful act, Bright Eyes, for an example. Oberst has basked in the limelight since he started recording at the age of thirteen, albeit under the dingy glow of the indie scene rather than the harsh spotlight of the mainstream media. However, he has successfully made the transition from overly-emotional, adolescent lyrics penned as a teenager to overly-emotional adolescent lyrics penned as a 20-something.

At the "over-the-hill" age of 24, the prolific Oberst not only has a decade's worth of works under his belt, he has also started his own label, engineered an album and had a role in no fewer than 18 albums in the last three years.

To further his deification, Oberst, who has garnered much attention from both the indie and mainstream media in recent weeks, has simultaneously released two albums, the more experimental and electronic of which is titled Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. [The second album is reviewed on the opposite side of this page.]

Despite sounding somewhat forced, the album is very distinct in creating a new sonic backdrop for Oberst's voice. Although he has worked under electronic settings in the past, the daunting task of creating an album's worth of electro-pop required even Oberst to seek the assistance from others, most notably The Postal Service's Jimmy Tamborello.

Although there are similarities between Digital Ash and The Postal Service's Give Up-both combine indie pop and electronica-the albums do not, in general, share a similar sound. Rather than creating shiny, melodic pop sound driven by loops and beeps, Oberst goes for a glitchier, 80s post-punk sound, occasionally channeling Robert Smith.

Unsurprisingly, the album is very hit-or-miss. The best tracks on the album, such as "Arc of Time" and "Down a Rabbit Hole," make Oberst's transition to the new Digital Ash sound seem brilliant. However, the album has many glaringly painful moments.

A baby cry in the middle of "Ship in a Bottle" makes one of the better songs on the album seem like a caricature of Oberst himself. Songs like "Theme from PiSata"-with painfully obvious lyrics like "I feel like the piSata /Once you take a swing at me"-almost seem like a dare to critics to come up with as cleverly demolishing a quip as possible.

Digital Ash is a flawed album. Just as you would imagine Oberst's personality, the disc has an almost bipolar quality-a quality perhaps very similar to the notion of simultaneously releasing such vastly different albums as Digital Ash and its folk rock counterpart, I'm Wide Awake It's Morning. The best songs effectively incorporate an electronic, post-punk sound, enticing the listener to want more. The worst songs take Oberst's most pretentious qualities to their logical conclusions.

Despite such inconsistency, these idiosyncrasies give the album a charming and interesting quality. Like much of Oberst"s output, half the fun is found in watching his artistry develop before our eyes.

At 24, Oberst has received far more attention than most will in an entire lifetime. His every move continues to capture our attention, and his experimentation on Digital Ash will certainly generate both positive and negative discussion. I can only hope he continues to experiment with electronic music, hopefully improving on the formula next time.