Ranking Bright Eyes’ 10 Albums
If you asked me to tell you about the Omaha, Nebraska music scene — I’d be hard pressed not to center the conversation around Bright Eyes, singer Conor Oberst, and Saddle Creek Records (founded by Conor’s brother Justin and fellow Bright Eyes member, Mike Mogis). Bright Eyes, together with the label, shaped a landscape of music for the area that really put the city on the map in regards to music (at least from my, albeit limited, knowledge of the area).
The band originally began as a solo project made up of Conor Oberst and an assortment of drum machines, keyboards, various other instruments, and Conor’s unmistakable vocal style.
As a musician and songwriter, Conor has been extremely prolific, releasing multiple albums per year as not only Bright Eyes, but also Desaparecidos (a political punk band), Better Oblivion Community Center, Monsters of Folk (an all-star cast of folk artists), and several releases under his own name.
Shortly after the first Bright Eyes release, producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis joined as a permanent member of the band and after 4 more releases, Nate Walcott was added to the group as the 3rd and last permanent member of Bright Eyes. In addition to these 3, Bright Eyes albums are then rounded out by a large and rotating cast of accomplished artists (mostly from Omaha and the surrounding area).
As a punk music devotee during my youth, there wasn’t many non-punk bands that would often sneak into my playlists, but Bright Eyes was definitely an exception. To this day, there’s still no other artist quite like them — with songs packed full of honesty and emotion, yet also delivering music with such a high quality production value featuring such an expansive use of musical styles and instruments.
To properly rank these albums, I listened to them all almost non-stop over the past 2 months. Although the records have a tendency to move around depending on my mood (particularly the middle selections), the beginning and ending of this list I think is pretty accurate.
Give it a read.
10. A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995–1997 (1998)
Bright Eyes’ first release is an album that’s more appreciated after listening to the rest of the band’s discography — it gives the listener a better understanding of where it all began and allows them to appreciate the subtleties that go into the music making process. As you can gather from the title, this is less a well thought-out full-length and more a collection of demos. With that in mind, it’s really more an album for diehard fans (even if there are a couple standout tracks like “Falling Out of Love at this Volume”). Releasing an album like this first was an odd choice, but Bright Eyes quickly followed it up with a second album later the same year. Although this is released under the Bright Eyes moniker, this album doesn’t feature either Mike Mogis or Nate Walcott — instead it’s mostly just Conor Oberst with a couple guests here and there.
Recommended Tracks: Falling Out of Love at this Volume, Lila, & Feb. 15th
9. A Christmas Album (2002)
As far as albums made up of Christmas covers go, this has to be one of my favourites. Bright Eyes manages to pull off exactly what you want in a covers album — songs that stay true to the original while still allowing the artist’s creativity to shine through. Because of such an approach, you won’t have trouble identifying the songs, but there’ s still a unique sombre depth that as a listener you’ll find a hard time not connecting with. Still, as the shortest Bright Eyes record and with no original songs, the placement of A Christmas Album was sure to be low.
Recommended Tracks: Little Drummer Boy, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, & Blue Christmas
8. Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was (2020)
Even at this lower position, it’s still fantastic to have Bright Eyes back in 2020 and in many ways, they haven’t missed a step during their break. The songwriting, as would be expected, is top notch as is the production of the record. As opposed to the the stylistic variances found within the first few records, this album flows through its tracks in a fairly measured, yet still exciting way (reminiscent to The People’s Key). It may be unsurprising, but Down in the Weeds sounds more mature than records prior, and with that maturity comes a different sort of solemn vibe. Gone are the days of young angst and replacing them are songs dripping with heavy sadness that hang on only a tinge of hope. While there’s no bad songs (except the pointless and skippable opening track), the only really standout track is “Mariana Trench” — a song that reminds the listener what they’ve been missing since the band went on hiatus.
Recommended Tracks: Mariana Trench, Dance and Sing, & Hot Car in the Sun
7. The People’s Key (2011)
On the band’s last release before their hiatus (at the time they stated it would be their last), there’s a very ominous and foreboding tone through the runtime. Although it never directly declares it, you can almost feel the band saying goodbye throughout it. Musically, the album holds through consistently — light indie tracks that at times see the band grasping at a more “rock” heavy approach. It’s an album that holds your attention, but lacks any really obvious singles, instead relying on the previously mentioned consistency. Stylistically it’s a departure from the folk/alt-country styles of the previous couple releases and relies more often on a synth-rock approach — something that helps it to stand out from others in their discography. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this album, it just never hits quite as hard as some of their other releases.
Recommended Tracks: Jejune Stars, Shell Games, & Triple Spiral
6. Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (2005)
The second of two 2005 releases for the band, Digital Ash is a record that took me years to fully enjoy. In fact, it wasn’t until a friend reintroduced it to me that I started to fully appreciate it. At the time of release, the digital/synth heavy structure of the album seemed so out of place and a misstep for the band. These issues I previously had have now been replaced with an admiration for ingenuity. Instead of following the more obvious path, Bright Eyes decided to venture outside of their comfort zone and while it didn’t result in their best album, it did show their expansive musical talent. This album would be ranked higher, but it suffers by not having many particularly noteworthy songs (compared to other releases), but there’s still not a bad song to be found.
Recommended Tracks: Arc of Time (Time Code), Take It Easy (Love Nothing), & Light Pollution
5. Cassadaga (2007)
I’ll admit, it took me a long time to appreciate this album — Bright Eye’s take on alt-country, packed full tracks with steel guitar and violin. For years, I thought it didn’t correctly correspond to the moody and introspective version of the band I had created in my head. By the nature of the music, it comes across much more uplifting and positive than most of their discography, but underneath all of that eagerness are songs rich in nature and beaming with lyrical tenacity. I now appreciate not only that the band always try to make something unique and new with each release, but also how each style chosen seems to be done with extreme appreciation for the genre they’re tackling and not just a simple “dip into the pool” so to speak. The record is sonically top-notch and continues the Bright Eyes tradition of multi-layered songs that never sound cumbersome. Overall, the album may come off more light-hearted, but in may ways is much darker than it seems.
Recommended Tracks: Hot Knives, If The Brakeman Turns My Way, & I Must Belong Somewhere
4. I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005)
Undeniably Bright Eye’s most commercially successful album and probably the favourite of many, I’m Wide Awake showcases the band at their most stripped-down level with several of the songs consisting of mostly just acoustic guitar and Oberst’s vocals. I think this more simplistic song-structure helped make the music more universally enjoyable — don’t take this as a slight though, the songs could very well make up a masterclass in songwriting. One of the best aspects of this record is being able to appreciate Oberst on a more skeleton scale. Throughout the band’s history, they’ve experimented with a litany of different techniques and methods for writing music, but it’s good to know that quality doesn’t go down at all when left with the bare essentials. This is Bright Eye’s most folk album and most popular for a good reason, it’s pure quality all the way through (particularly on the second half). Notably, this is the record where Nate Walcott joined as a permanent member.
Recommended Tracks: Road To Joy, At the Bottom of Everything, & First Day of My Life
3. Letting Off the Happiness (1998)
As much as I love Bright Eye’s choice to make their past 5–6 albums stylistically unique from each other, it’s the raw emotion and originality in their first few records that always brings me back to the band. With Letting Off the Happiness (basically the band’s debut record) there’s an overwhelming sense of freedom throughout the tracks — songs that have no lofty expectations set out for them and thus traverse in an almost impromptu way. Although the production is actually quite good, it’s still noticeably less polished than more recent albums. This lack of shine comes out particularly well when paired with Oberst’s less trained vocals, especially on songs where he allows himself to scream out lines. If you prefer the more radio-friendly Bright Eyes, there’s no shame to it, but it’s in this record and a couple of the other early records where I feel like the band is at their peak.
Recommended Tracks: The City Has Sex, June On The West Coast, & Contrast And Compare
2. Fevers and Mirrors (2000)
Fevers and Mirrors is such a perfect successor to Letting Off the Happiness. It completely captures everything great about that album while still finding ways to reach out to new depths. Like Letting Off, this album is chalked full of raw and emotionally charged songs with beautifully poetic lyrics to go with them. It constantly (and expertly) is able to balance between soft, almost whispering lines followed by near screaming on tracks like “The Calendar Hung Itself…”. The musical arrangements also become more intricate on this record — often through barely noticeable subtleties. The exposed nature of this album (and the band as a whole) is why I always appreciate and respect this band. Conor’s warbly vibrato-esque delivery will always set this band apart from so many other contemporaries.
Recommended Tracks: The Calendar Hung Itself…, Sunrise, Sunset, & Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh
1. Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (2002)
This record is a masterpiece. It’s not only Bright Eyes’ best album, it’s one of the best albums ever released. It’s one of those once in a lifetime records that while you’re listening to it, you just get the feeling that you’re hearing something special. It’s grandiose, beautiful, touching, heartbreaking, sombre, and also gleeful. The lyrics are full of poetic mastery, touching on personal and universal subjects that beg the listener to directly connect to. Sometimes it’s just simply Oberst with an acoustic guitar and at other times you’ve got a whole orchestral arrangement of instruments on a song. Throughout it all, it’s the passion and ingenuity that ties this work of art together. It’s a record that never feel dishonest or like it’s merely trying to sell a product. This is a group of musical artists putting their heart and soul into a project. As great as the other Bright Eyes releases are, I would trade them all in for this album if had to.
Recommended Tracks: Lover I Don’t Have To Love, Bowl of Oranges, & False Advertising
Others!
Bright Eyes has several EPs, Splits, and various other non-album singles to check out, but if you’re only going to listen to one, I would recommend Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998–2005).
Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998–2005)
