August 21 street date. Sometimes it feels like you hear a Bright Eyes song with your whole body. From Conor Oberst's early recordings in an Omaha basement in 1995 all the way up to 2020, Bright Eyes' music tries to unravel the impossible tangles of dissent: personal and political, external and internal. It's a study of the beauty in unsteadiness in all its forms - in a voice, beliefs, love, identity, and what fills up the spaces in-between. And in so many ways, it's just about searching for a way through. 2020 is full of significant anniversaries for Bright Eyes. "Fevers And Mirrors" was released 20 years ago this May, while "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn" and "I'm Wide Awake It's Morning" both turned 15 in January. And while 2020 is a year of milestones for the band, it's also the year Bright Eyes returns, newly signed to Dead Oceans. Amidst the current overwhelming uncertainty and upheaval of global and personal worlds, Bright Eyes reunited under the moniker as both an escape from, and a confrontation of, trying times. Getting the band back together felt right, and necessary, and the friendship at the core of the band has been a longtime pillar of Bright Eyes' output. For Bright Eyes, this long-awaited re-emergence feels like coming home.
August 21 street date. Sometimes it feels like you hear a Bright Eyes song with your whole body. From Conor Oberst's early recordings in an Omaha basement in 1995 all the way up to 2020, Bright Eyes' music tries to unravel the impossible tangles of dissent: personal and political, external and internal. It's a study of the beauty in unsteadiness in all its forms - in a voice, beliefs, love, identity, and what fills up the spaces in-between. And in so many ways, it's just about searching for a way through. 2020 is full of significant anniversaries for Bright Eyes. "Fevers And Mirrors" was released 20 years ago this May, while "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn" and "I'm Wide Awake It's Morning" both turned 15 in January. And while 2020 is a year of milestones for the band, it's also the year Bright Eyes returns, newly signed to Dead Oceans. Amidst the current overwhelming uncertainty and upheaval of global and personal worlds, Bright Eyes reunited under the moniker as both an escape from, and a confrontation of, trying times. Getting the band back together felt right, and necessary, and the friendship at the core of the band has been a longtime pillar of Bright Eyes' output. For Bright Eyes, this long-awaited re-emergence feels like coming home.
August 21 street date. Sometimes it feels like you hear a Bright Eyes song with your whole body. From Conor Oberst's early recordings in an Omaha basement in 1995 all the way up to 2020, Bright Eyes' music tries to unravel the impossible tangles of dissent: personal and political, external and internal. It's a study of the beauty in unsteadiness in all its forms - in a voice, beliefs, love, identity, and what fills up the spaces in-between. And in so many ways, it's just about searching for a way through. 2020 is full of significant anniversaries for Bright Eyes. "Fevers And Mirrors" was released 20 years ago this May, while "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn" and "I'm Wide Awake It's Morning" both turned 15 in January. And while 2020 is a year of milestones for the band, it's also the year Bright Eyes returns, newly signed to Dead Oceans. Amidst the current overwhelming uncertainty and upheaval of global and personal worlds, Bright Eyes reunited under the moniker as both an escape from, and a confrontation of, trying times. Getting the band back together felt right, and necessary, and the friendship at the core of the band has been a longtime pillar of Bright Eyes' output. For Bright Eyes, this long-awaited re-emergence feels like coming home.
May 27 street date (CD)/July 15 street date (LP). It's the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Conor Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. Originally released in 1998, "A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997" is, well, a collection of Bright Eyes songs written and recorded between 1995-1997.
May 27 street date (CD)/July 15 street date (LP). It's the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Conor Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. Originally released in 1998, "Letting Off The Happiness" is the debut album from Bright Eyes.
Please note new street date: November 25. "The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Conor Oberst says. "But from "Lifted" on, I was definitely aware of an audience. "Lifted" was well-received right away, and then everything happened with "Wide Awake" and "Digital Ash"." Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles - "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)," from the austere, remote "Digital Ash", and "Lua," from the warm, folky "Wide Awake" - debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. "First Day of My Life," also from "Wide Awake", would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Music's reader's poll. Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraught and tense, both because of the band's careening new fame, and because of the state of the world.
Please note new street date: November 25. "The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Conor Oberst says. "But from "Lifted" on, I was definitely aware of an audience. "Lifted" was well-received right away, and then everything happened with "Wide Awake" and "Digital Ash"." Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles - "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)," from the austere, remote "Digital Ash", and "Lua," from the warm, folky "Wide Awake" - debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. "First Day of My Life," also from "Wide Awake", would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Music's reader's poll. Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraught and tense, both because of the band's careening new fame, and because of the state of the world.
Please note new street date: November 25. "The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Conor Oberst says. "But from "Lifted" on, I was definitely aware of an audience. "Lifted" was well-received right away, and then everything happened with "Wide Awake" and "Digital Ash"." Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles - "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)," from the austere, remote "Digital Ash", and "Lua," from the warm, folky "Wide Awake" - debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. "First Day of My Life," also from "Wide Awake", would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Music's reader's poll. Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraught and tense, both because of the band's careening new fame, and because of the state of the world.
Please note new street date: November 25. "The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Conor Oberst says. "But from "Lifted" on, I was definitely aware of an audience. "Lifted" was well-received right away, and then everything happened with "Wide Awake" and "Digital Ash"." Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles - "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)," from the austere, remote "Digital Ash", and "Lua," from the warm, folky "Wide Awake" - debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. "First Day of My Life," also from "Wide Awake", would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Music's reader's poll. Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraught and tense, both because of the band's careening new fame, and because of the state of the world.
Please note new street date: November 25. "The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Conor Oberst says. "But from "Lifted" on, I was definitely aware of an audience. "Lifted" was well-received right away, and then everything happened with "Wide Awake" and "Digital Ash"." Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles - "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)," from the austere, remote "Digital Ash", and "Lua," from the warm, folky "Wide Awake" - debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. "First Day of My Life," also from "Wide Awake", would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Music's reader's poll. Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraught and tense, both because of the band's careening new fame, and because of the state of the world.
Please note new street date: November 25. "The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Conor Oberst says. "But from "Lifted" on, I was definitely aware of an audience. "Lifted" was well-received right away, and then everything happened with "Wide Awake" and "Digital Ash"." Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles - "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)," from the austere, remote "Digital Ash", and "Lua," from the warm, folky "Wide Awake" - debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. "First Day of My Life," also from "Wide Awake", would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Music's reader's poll. Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraught and tense, both because of the band's careening new fame, and because of the state of the world.
May 27 street date. It's the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Conor Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. This wouldn't be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past weren't turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. That's where the nine companion EPs come in. Or as Oberst puts it, "the supplemental reading" for the primary reissues: one six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album. "My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way". Plus one cover that felt "of the era" in which that particular albums was made - a song that meant something to the band at the time.
Please note new street date: November 25. "The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Conor Oberst says. "But from "Lifted" on, I was definitely aware of an audience". These days, Oberst is still amusing himself by messing with the extremes Bright Eyes baked into this era's releases, extremes that reflected the polar, with-us-or-against-us, fractious feel of the times.
Please note new street date: November 25. "The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Conor Oberst says. "But from "Lifted" on, I was definitely aware of an audience". These days, Oberst is still amusing himself by messing with the extremes Bright Eyes baked into this era's releases, extremes that reflected the polar, with-us-or-against-us, fractious feel of the times. The analogue sweetness of the "Wide Awake" songs have been put through a detached nihilism filter.
Please note new street date: November 25. "The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Conor Oberst says. "But from "Lifted" on, I was definitely aware of an audience". These days, Oberst is still amusing himself by messing with the extremes Bright Eyes baked into this era's releases, extremes that reflected the polar, with-us-or-against-us, fractious feel of the times. The reworked "Digital Ash" tracks, originally so clean and elegant, are, on the companion EP, full of "harmonica and mandolins - folky vibes," Oberst says.
November 10 street date. Bright Eyes' "A Christmas Album" begins with a piano, flute, ambient noise, and musical saw-driven version of "Away In A Manger", helping weed out casual Christmas music enjoyers, but all too tempting for the most devout of Conor Oberst's disciples, who originally learned that the warmth of the holiday season is trumped only by its potential for melancholy back in 2002 with the original Saddle Creek release. Oberst and a small army of friends at his house proceed to jamboree through Christmas classics like "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", and "Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem". Holiday cheer, when delivered with Oberst's trademark tremble, sounds more like a lament than it does hymns of ecclesiastical joy. But the spirited listener will find that the fragile, homespun, and somewhat blinkered vibe that permeates the album sets itself apart from the bog-standard, less sonically humble offerings of the holidays, and, both strangely and satisfyingly, is probably more aligned with the true spirit of the season.
June 16 street date. One of the things that struck Conor Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. "Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now," Oberst says, shaking his head. "There's something affirming and disheartening about it. It's like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it's just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning". This last wave of Bright Eyes reissues contains, in "Noise Floor", early songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day.
June 16 street date. One of the things that struck Conor Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. "Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now," Oberst says, shaking his head. "There's something affirming and disheartening about it. It's like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it's just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning". This last wave of Bright Eyes reissues contains, in "Noise Floor", early songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day.
June 16 street date. This last wave of Bright Eyes reissues contains "Cassadaga" and "The People's Key", the band's most polished and sophisticated albums. One of the things that struck Conor Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. When Bright Eyes toured 2007's "Cassadaga", they performed an epic 7 sold-out nights at NYC's Town Hall. What's more grown-up rock-star than that? And yet ..."thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now," Oberst says, shaking his head. "There's something affirming and disheartening about it. It's like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it's just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning".
June 16 street date. This last wave of Bright Eyes reissues contains 2011's "The People's Key", one of the band's most polished and sophisticated albums. One of the things that struck Conor Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. "Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now," Oberst says, shaking his head. "There's something affirming and disheartening about it. It's like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it's just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning".
June 16 street date. 6 track companion EP to the reissue of "The People's Key" features tracks not on the album as well as alternate versions of other tracks that did make the album.
June 16 street date. 6 track companion EP to "Noise Floor" features tracks not on the album as well as alternate versions of other tracks that did make the album.
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