Bright Eyes ranks at #4 on my ongoing list of favorite bands, a band that unfortunately seemed to have peaked with 2002's brilliant Lifted, or the Story is in the Soil and has followed with the overlong, but filled with gems, double-album collection from January 2005 and then the truly disappointing 2007 release Cassadaga. Lead singer (and let's be honest, the entire force behind the "band") Conor Oberst came out with his first solo album since his teenage years in August of this year, and since he's insisting this is a truly solo effort divorced from the band, I won't hold its tepid, boring collection against Bright Eyes. But it does continue what is now a disturbing trend. So why is the band still at #4, edging out the likes of Mogwai and Superchunk and hard-charging Okkervil River, Explosions in the Sky, and Sunset Rubdown? Letting off the Happiness. Fevers and Mirrors. Every Day and Every Night EP. Oh Holy Fools Split EP. Drunk Kid Catholic EP. And, of course, Lifted. I pretty much loved everything the band recorded between 1998 and 2002. And he recorded a ton of shit between 1998 and 2002. So the stumbles since haven't fully hit yet. Plus, he wrote "When the President Talks to God" about George Bush back before the rest of us knew what a freakin' disaster he was. So that was pretty awesome. But the next album is certainly crucial. They could start dropping like a rocket or working to fill a permanent place in the top 5, something the 3 bands ahead of them have all achieved.
Album Release date Label Chart positions US UK A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997 January 1998 Saddle Creek - - Letting Off the Happiness November 2, 1998 Saddle Creek - - Fevers and Mirrors May 29, 2000 Saddle Creek - - Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground August 13, 2002 Saddle Creek 161 - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning January 25, 2005 Saddle Creek 10 23 Digital Ash in a Digital Urn January 25, 2005 Saddle Creek 15 43 Motion Sickness: Live Recordings November 15, 2005 Team Love - - Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998-2005) October 24, 2006 Saddle Creek - - Cassadaga April 10, 2007 Saddle Creek 4 13
Top 30 Favorite Bright Eyes Songs
1. "A Perfect Sonnet" Fevers and Mirrors, 2000, 3:42 (#21 of all time)
2. "Bad Blood" (with The Album Leaf), Collaboration Series #1, 2002, 4:55 (#31 of all time)
3. "If Winter Ends" Letting off the Happiness, 1998, 3:25 (#73 of all time)
4. "The Trees Get Wheeled Away" Noise Floor, 2006, 4:03 (#127 of all time)
5. "Light Pollution" Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, 2005, 3:17 (#139 of all time)
6. "Lover I Don't Have to Love" Lifted, or the Story is in the Soil, 2002, 4:00 (#160 of all time)
7. "The Center of the World" Fevers and Mirrors, 2000, 4:43 (#170 of all time)
8. "Happy Birthday to Me" Drunk Kid Catholic, 2001, 4:05 (#186 of all time)
9. "Oh, You are the Roots that Sleep Beneath My Feet" Oh Holy Fools, 2001, 3:10 (#192 of all time)
10. "Method Acting" Lifted, or the Story is in the Soil, 2002, 3:42
There's no beginning to the story, a bookshelf sinks into the sand
And a language learned and forgot in turn is studied once again
It's a shocking bit of footage viewed from a shitty TV screen
You can squint at it through snow and static
To make out the meaning
And keep on stretching the antenna hoping that it will come clear
We need some reception, a higher message
Just tell us what to fear
Because I don't know what tomorrow brings
It's alive with such possibilities
All I know is I feel better when I sing
Burdens are lifted from me
That's my voice risingSo Michael please keep the tape rolling, boys keep strumming those guitars
We need a record of our failures, yes, we must document our love
I have sat too long in my silence, I have grown too old in my pain
To shed this skin, be born again
Oh, it starts with an ending
So thank you friends for the time we shared
My love stays with you like sunlight and air
No, I truly wish I could keep hanging around here
My joy is covering me
Soon I will disappearIt's not a movie, no private screening
This method acting, well, I call it living
It's like a fountain, a door has opened
We have a problem, with no solution
But to love and to be lovedSo I've made peace with the fallen leaves
I see their same fate in my own body
But I won't be frightened when I'm awoken from this dream
And return to that which gave birth to me
Gave birth to me, gave birth to me, gave birth to me
And the story goes, and the story goes
And it goes on and on and on and on
It's going on and on and on and on
11. "From a Balance Beam" Lifted, or the Story is in the Soil, 2002, 3:40
12. "Scale" (live version of "A Scale, A Mirror, and Those Indifferent Clocks") Motion Sickness, 2005, 2:23
13. "The City Has Sex" Letting off the Happiness, 1998, 2:11
14. "Something Vague" Fevers and Mirrors, 2000, 3:33
Now and again it seems worse than it is, but mostly the view is accurate.
You see your breath in the air as you climb up the stairs to that coffin you call your apartment.
And you sink in your chair, brush the snow from your hair
and drink the cold away.
And you're not really sure what you're doing this for
But you need something to fill up the days.
A few more hours.
There's a dream in my brain that just won’t go away.
It's been stuck there since it came a few nights ago
And I’m standing on a bridge in the town where I lived
As a kid with my mom and my brothers.
And then the bridge disappears and I’m standing on air
With nothing holding me.
And I hang like a star, fucking glow in the dark,
For all those starving eyes to see,
Like the ones we’ve wished on.
Now I’m confused. Is this death really you?
Do these dreams have any meaning?
No. No, I think it is more like a ghost that has been following us both.
Something vague that we're not seeing, something more like a feeling.
15. "Take it Easy (Love Nothing)" Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, 2005, 3:20
16. "Nothing Gets Crossed Out" Lifted, or the Story is in the Soil, 2002
17. "Kathy with a K's Song" Oh Holy Fools, 2001, 4:38
18. "Haligh Haligh a Lie Haligh" Fevers and Mirrors, 2000, 4:43
19. "Reinvent the Wheel" Four Winds EP, 2007, 3:32
20. "Pull My Hair" Letting off the Happiness, 1998, 4:09
21. "When the Curious Girl Realizes She is Under Glass" Fevers and Mirrors, 2000, 2:40
22. "I Woke Up With This Song in My Head this Morning" Lua EP, 2004, 3:55
23. "First Day of My Life" I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, 2005, 3:08
24. "A Line Allows Progress, A Circle Does Not" Every Day and Every Night EP, 2000, 3:25
25. "Hot Knives" Cassadaga, 2007, 4:12
26. "Don't Know When, But a Day is Gonna Come" Lifted, or the Story is in the Soil, 2002, 6:31
27. "Drunk Kid Catholic" Drunk Kid Catholic, 2001, 3:12
28. "I Will Be Grateful for this Day" Noise Floor, 2005, 4:20
29. "Blue Angels Air Show" Noise Floor, 2005, 3:12
30. "Poison Oak" I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, 2005, 4:40
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Posted by: Kenny | January 21, 2009 at 03:31 AM