Is the attention warranted? Not yet. But pop culture doesn't wait for promising artists to mature before showering them with hype. Oberst already has shared stages with R.E.M. and befriended Michael Stipe. A few weeks ago, he received a thrift-store jacket as a gift from another admirer, Bruce Springsteen, after concluding the Vote for Change arena tour.

Tastemakers from all corners of the music industry and media are jumping at the opportunity to anoint Oberst the "new Dylan." The Los Angeles Times has already proclaimed "I'm Wide Awake" "the most absorbing singer-songwriter collection since Bob Dylan's 'Time Out of Mind' eight years ago."

Oberst's cult of obsessive fans is expanding. Bright Eyes even briefly entered the same commercial galaxy as Sean "P. Diddy" Combs when the albums' debut singles were released two months ago. "Lua" and "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)" bowed in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, the first one-two opening by an artist since Combs accomplished the feat in 1997.

Bright Eyes' previous album, "Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground," cracked the Billboard 200 and has sold nearly 200,000 copies since its 2002 release, a remarkable figure for an independent album that received virtually no commercial radio or video airplay. It made Oberst and Bright Eyes the icons of the flourishing Lincoln, Neb., scene, something of a self-contained industry with its own label (Saddle Creek). Saddle Creek's stable of acclaimed indie bands includes Cursive, the Faint and Oberst's side project, Desparecidos.

Oberst is aware of the hype. But he'd rather concentrate on writing songs. Ask him to assess his recordings, and he'll say that he isn't completely satisfied with any of them.

"I remember listening to Fugazi when I was about 13, and realizing that a song could mean something more than just 'la-la-la,' " says Oberst, speaking in a quiet, halting voice that's the antithesis of rock-star cool. "Do I ever match that standard? I don't know if I ever do. I have to feel a certain way about a song before I'll release it or perform it, but I never really thought, 'This is the one! I've got a hit on my hands!' It's more like, I need to keep writing more songs and not judge them.