Of Miles Rausch

From Noise Floor: Rarities 1998-2005 (2006)

The Noise Floor compilation helped sew up a lot of empty pockets in my Bright Eyes collection. One of those missing songs, a song I’d heard years ago courtesy of Jeff Gabhart, but which I’d lost track of, was this one. It includes the Conor yell-line-repeat-line-yell-line approach to ending a song. Pick a phrase, and say it over and over, sometimes modifying it a little bit. For some artists, I find that lazy. For Bright Eyes, I find that poignant. But, I am biased.

Notable lyric: I’m sorry about the phone call / and waking you / I know that it is late / but thank you for talking / cause I needed to / yeah, somethings just can’t wait

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From Lifted Or the Story Is In the Soil, Keep Your Ear to The Ground (2002)

I love how this one starts off. You hear a tape recorder. It plays a short clip, in which a female voice is heard. She says, “It goes on forever and ever and ever”, then it stops, rewinds, and plays “-ever and ever”, then it stops, rewinds, and plays, “-goes on forever and ever…” Meanwhile, a sound, a building sound, is growing behind the tape recorder. Then it bursts into life.

Notable lyric: So I wait for the day when I’ll hear the key / as it turns in the lock / and the guard will say to me, / “Oh my patient prisoner you have waited for this day and finally / you are free! / You are free! / You are freezing!”

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From I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning (2005)

While 2005 saw the release of a “techno” Bright Eyes album, it also saw the opposite. Land Locked Blues, and the other songs on this album, were of a stripped-down, folky (bleeding slightly into country and western), and generally warm manner. This song mosies, as one would say, with clever turns of phrase and brilliant song-writing.

Notable lyric: If you walk away, I’ll walk away / First tell me which road you will take / I don’t want to risk our paths crossing someday / So you walk that way, I’ll walk this way

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Digital Ash In a Digital Urn (2005)

2005 was a big year for Bright Eyes. Conor had recently moved to New York and was working on two simultaneous albums. One album produced this song, a percussive exploration of all of life and all of time. Quite a heady topic for an indie (pop?) song, but one that makes for a jaunty sing-song when you feel the need.

Notable lyric: Singing “I told you son, / The day will come, / You would die, you die, you die, you die…”

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From Oh Holy Fools (2001)

This song comes from a split EP with the band Son, Ambulance. Unfortunately, I don’t own this album. I say “unfortunately” because it has some of my favorite Bright Eyes tracks on it, especially this one. With a tangible ache, lyrics hinting at suicide attempts and life reconstructions, this song takes you to a dark brink, walks you back, and gives you a hug.

Notable lyric: So I’d like to make some changes / Before you arrive / So when your new eyes meet mine / They won’t see no lies / Just love.

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From Letting Off The Happiness (1998)

An early experiment with synthesizers, this song stands out on this sophomore effort by Conor. It shows that he certainly had learned a lot of lessons from the previous album. However, that doesn’t mean he gave up any of his old style. This has just as much of the scrape-sound as his acoustic endeavors.

Notable lyric: and there is nothing more i want / than just one night / that’s free of doubt and sadness

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From Fevers and Mirrors (2000)

It’s hard to believe that someone who spends so much time being raw and harsh can write something so beautiful. This song is an unexpected sunrise vista. The story told in the lyrics is supported (and complemented) by a wonderful arrangement of the cornucopia of instruments which has become the style of Bright Eyes.

Notable lyric: but now I’m confused / is this death really you?

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From Every Day and Every Night EP (1999)

This song has some vivid imagery. It’s a love song that spends most of the time wallowing in anger and depression. The narrator constantly reiterates his hatred of lovers, that class of people ignorant to the cold emptiness of the real world, remarking that lovers should be drowned and burned. Then, in the last verse, he suddenly changes course, ending the song in remarkable optimism.

Notable lyric: I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers / And laid entwined together on a bed of clovers / Left there to sleep / Left there to dream of their happiness

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From Cassadaga (2007)

Notable lyric: Well, I went back to my rented Cadillac and company jet / Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps / All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead / They said, “You’d better look alive”

A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997 (1997)

In 1995, I was 12 years old. Conor Oberst, lead singer and mastermind behind Bright Eyes, was three years older. And, yet, he was writing songs like this one. This song, from the first Bright Eyes album, is tortured and raw. In typical Conor fashion, his voice is a stratchy record. Yet, he never screams for no reason; there is always melody, harmony, or message in his voice.

Stand out lyric: Fill the bathtub with ice and hope this fever will break / Like a heart / Easily