20 FAVE BRIGHT EYES SONGS

think its safe to say Conor is brillant beyond words, a stand out artist amidst the enitre industry and history of music. You are brave to compile this list. They’re all phenomenal songs. So often my family has talked about Conor favorites and we always find it too difficult to pin to any cuz the list just grows. Move from song to song, album to abum, just perfection, insight, musical beauty.

i give you props for listing some very good songs. i think digital ash is very underrated. however, i feel that you could have put some older songs. my wife didn’t know about bright eyes until we got married and now i think she loves conor more than me. we have agreed (along with other fans) that the older material might actually be his best work. just my opinion but good list anyways. thanks.

Great list!! Off the top of my head, I would include “True Blue,” “Waste of Paint,” and “Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (to love and to be loved” 

Great list, helpbefore. Bright Eyes is definitely one of my favorite bands. Connor is such a genius.

Where’s let’s not s*** ourselves? and make war? I do love poison oak though.

Your top 5 is my exact 5 five. I always wondered why nobody credited these song as much as they should be,

great list

I love hot knives

He’s seriously a genius

If u love him check out Two Gallants
Same company (saddle creek)

That is a really good one!!

Gaudete

I would recommend “Airport’ by The Motors (1970′s)

and, “Brilliant Mind” by Furniture (1980′s)

I must say you really have a good taste in choosing a song. How about songs of a group from 70s and 80s, do you have one?

Great comment as usual Gary.

@f7b6734bdd35e8fa94ab630638178933:disqus Thank you so much for all your insightful feedback Gary.  I am so glad you’ve connecting with Connor Oberst and his music as I have.  I’m also very happy that you got to tour around the site as well.  There’s a lot here, some from me and a lot from other young, inspired people.  It’s been an exciting adventure doing this!
I don’t know if you’ve seen the original videos I’ve done, but you can watch them all here: http://www.thewildhoneypie.com/twpvideo

All the best,

Eric

Eric

I’m not yet well acquainted with his ‘side-projects’ work. I am sort of saving them to enjoy later. 

I did a similar thing with Bob Dylan twenty years ago – of course this was pre youtube and so you would have too go out and buy the LP’s – and I would always give myself about a month to devour each one before moving on to the next one.

Dylan had released about 35 albums by that stage – of which fifteen to twenty of which were truly unmissable – most of the others were ‘at best’ patchy, and some, like ‘self portrait’ utter junk (some say intentially so as he was fed up of being labelled the ‘voice of a generation’  etc.

I know the cannon of Dylan’s work extremely well, and although I think it not necessary to rank, order artists work, I do think that Conor Oberst is every bit Dylan’s equal, possibly better, and if I could only listen to one artist for the rest of my life, at the moment, I would chose Conor Oberst.

I have a bit of an obsessive personality and I’m currently working my way through ‘noisefloor’ and am very pleases to report that songs that on first-listen sounded like throw-away material, improve dramatically the more you listen to them.

I’m going to see BE in Gateshead, UK in July – I haven’t been to a gig in about 10 years, so that should be fun.

Thanks for your page, anyway – it’s always nice to communicate with like minded people.

It would be remiss of me not to mention a few others that any other band would regard as ‘career-best works’ but BE have so many damned fine songs that some of them carelessly get forgotton.

Lime Tree – “And since the operation I here you’re breathing just for one.”

     and “I can’t sleep next to a stranger, when I’m coming round”  - just so astoundingly beautiful.

No-one would riot for less – daft title but its Bright Eyes’ “Masters of War” song

Happy Birthday to me – “All eyes on the calendar” – what a suspensefully ironic line from one so young.

Conor Oberst – Lenders inside the temple – beautiful

Monsters of Folk do a song called ‘map of the world’ which is pretty top too. There is a 40 minute concert on Saddle Creek Records website of a recent Bright Eyes gig ( without Mike Mogis – family emergency) and they play a completely different set which I strongly recommend, of which, “Map of the world” is the standout track.

If you have the time check it out and report back.

When I say ‘pap’, what I mean is ‘obvious’. I only became aware of Bright Eyes in February of this year. I am 40 and no longer move in hip-circles as i did twenty years ago – so when I did cross paths for the first time I had a lot of back-cataloging to do.

The first BE song I ever heard was Lua – which I thougght was just so incredibly beautiful, then First Day of my life and then (going from one youtube link to another ) discovered that I had only really been listening to songs from I’m Wide Awake, Its Morning. 

I never listen to any of those songs now (although I still love them) 

I used your list to help me discover new songs and it was a big help but there are still so many holes.

From your list I particularly like, From a Balance beam, attempt to tip the scales, nothing gets crossed out. You include too many Digital ash songs for my palate.

If you have never heard ‘entry way song’ then I envy you. Going for the gold is also top-drawer and a little song called ‘Lila’ is stunning in its simplicity.

The new album is great too. He just doesn’t seem to have the ability to write a duff song.

June on the west coast, Gold mine gutted, Easy/lucky/free, its cool we can still be friends, old soul song, Padraic my prince. Hungry for a holiday (its connor with The Album Leaf) , the calender hung itself, The Biggest lie (a cover of an Elliot smith song, but connor does it pretty well) ..

You missed Road to Joy!

I keep listening to the newscast talk about receiving boundless online grant applications so I have been looking around for the most excellent site to get one. Could you advise me please, where could i find some?

great… this is what i lookin for :)

Your #1 and #2 are spot on. I would definitely move “At The Bottom of Everything” to the top 10 and probably throw in “Well Whisky” and “Woke Up With This Song In My Head This Morning” from the Lua single. Otherwise, a very nice list.