Search - Bright Eyes :: There Is No Beginning to the Story

You either get it or you don't

Bando | 11/15/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It was after purchasing a Cursive CD at best buy that I first heard about Bright Eyes. They had CD's littered all through the Saddle Creek catalog. I got curious, but not very. So later at school an indie kid I know was wearing a Bright Eyes shirt. Me and him don't typically have much in common musically, except cursive. (He's a saddle creek freak) That did it though, I had to check out this band. I went to Best Buy again the following weekend and bought the cheapest bright eyes CD they had. "Every day and every night EP" I made a big mistake going into that listen. I was expecting some sub-pop indie emo EP that would really be special. That's not what Bright Eyes is. I gave the EP a 2 star and ran off.



After reading some other Bright Eyes reviews on Amazon though, I started to see my mistake. Bright eyes is not really music, to compare it to other music is stupid. What Conor Oberst is really doing, is creating poetry and puting melody to it. That must be why the reviews for Bright Eyes are so split. One side hates Bright Eyes because they bought a CD looking for great indie music. The other side praises Conor Oberst because they realize this is really poetry with music. In fact, I now think Bright eyes should be categorized under spoken word, rather than music. That's how dependant the music is on the lyrics. That's not to say that the music is bad by itself, no. bright eyes can make songs teeming with emotive both in music and words. It's really a simple concept: Oberst can contend with some of the best writers of our time, and yes he writes music too.



What does all this mean though? And when will I actually review this CD? You'll find out momentarily!



I will say this, though... To be a true Bright Eyes fan, you must put forth effort into actually paying good attention to the songs written. I made the horrid mistake of expecting a CD I could pop in and just relax to. When really, we need to do just the opposite and actually try to decode the message of the song. That all aside, I can get to my review.



Well, when I went over to best buy, I decided to get this EP. It looked pretty cool, and it was cheap like the last one. "From a balance beam" may indeed be the best song here. I was duly impressed when I first heard it. It's sub-pop goodness, with a drumroll to die for. The lyrics are really good, even for Bright eyes standard. It has so many different examples of past and present poetic styles. It's really a great precursor to the rest of the CD.

"Messenger Bird's song" is really one of those songs that tested my understanding of bright eyes. It's one of Conor's forays into the folk genre, which I hate, but for some reason I found myself liking this slow, laggy, ballad-esque song. Conor's voice is also very impressive around the second half. He emotional enough to make up for the sub-par music.

Around this time I was reassured that the CD was a good buy, and was happy to hear "We are free men". It features a guest vocalist who does a pretty good job keeping up with Conor. I can't place what genre this song's trying to hit. (it may be multiple ones) but I really like to drums. They sound quite fresh compared to other stuff I've heard.

"Loose Leaves" is a great way to wind up this CD, sounding sort of like a beatles song. The melody is probably the funnest on the record. It sounds sort of techno trancey, but soon show's it's hand when the trumpet comes in about 1:30 into the song. Being the only fast paced song on the EP, it's a good pick. There's too many instruments to count on here, and some of them I'm not familiar with. Nice...



Overall, I enjoyed this knowing now what I do about Bright Eyes. However, I believe there is better bright eyes stuff out there, so I'm going to go buy another one of their CD's and hope its even better."

Absolutely Amazing

Phillip Devor | Needham, MA USA | 08/20/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wow. It seems like Conor Oberst is finally maturing. While he produced some amazing songs while he was younger (he started writing songs at 13), my problem with them was that sometimes he was a bit too whiney-sounding. Conor is in his '20s now, and the "whineyness" is gone. Conor also used to lay the symbolism on a bit too thick. He has toned that down now to the perfect level.I have a very serious problem with this album, however. There are only 4 songs. I want more. Each song is a masterpiece. I have over 3000 mp3s on my computer, I have listened to probably tens of thousands of songs in my lifetime. These 4 songs are all in my top 50 of best songs in any genre."Loose Leaves" is the best song I have ever heard. Both the lyrics and the melody is creative, original, and imaginative. The song is very polished, yet somehow escapes feeling artificial like mass-produced teeny-bopper music.Where "Loose Leaves" involved too many instruments and sounds to keep track of, "Messenger Bird Song" is an acoustic, simple, and beautiful tale of love.The other songs are great too. I won't describe them because people interpret Bright Eyes songs in so many different ways.Who would love Bright Eyes? Romantic philosopher existentialists. Disenchanted nihilists. Manic depressives. Youth in the midst of a complete identity crises.If you want to feel strong emotions of awe and happiness, buy this CD.However, if you want a slightly darker, more powerful CD, try an earlier work by Bright Eyes, "Fevers and Mirrors.""

A bit of a tease

Phillip Devor | 09/24/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"let me see... bright eyes career has followed a strange and hard to pin down quality curve. basically, i think his albums are getting worse, while his singles and ep's and such are getting better. i'm not sure if the sub-pop single "i will be grateful for this day" came out before or after "oh holy fools", but suppose it doesn't matter. the point is that for me, this ep was following up the sub-pop single, the a-side of which i feel is the best thing bright eyes has yet come up with. i mention all this just to say that my expectations for this ep were high.starting with "from a balance beam"... immedaite wish-fullfillment. it was exactly what i wanted to hear. i love that song. it's got the shimmer of the sub-pop single, tempered by a more organic feel. very foward-thinking and singular and imaginitive and the lyrics are just wonderful (at least for the first half). then the messanger bird song. it's very nicely produced. you can tell that banjo sounds EXACTLY how they wanted it to sound. lonely and sad. the song is just a bit bland though. a little blockheaded. still good though. "we are free men" is nice too, but i don't care for the alternating vocals. the other singer (simon joyner?) seems to be mocking the lyrics he's been asked to sing. but maybe that's fair, as they are a little ponderous and overwrought. and it seems that maybe conor oberst reach cannot meet his grasp in the epic feel of the song. it sounds a little corny and overly grand. "loose leaves" is "loose leaves". you cannot argue with this song. it's undeniable and none shall be spared it's deadly hooks, it's great. i love it. the perfect mix tape song for that special friend, because unless you are dead you cannot NOT find this song irresistable. the maine problem with this cd is that bright eyes sort of blew their load by using "from a blance beam" as a teaser for the lp, since by and large, the rest of the songs on "lifted" don't come close to being as cool. the lp is still great, but not as visionary and interesting as that one song. so, until the next ep/single..."