I was pleasantly surprised to find Letting Off the Happiness the second album by Bright Eyes from 1998 on the Saddle Creek label in a St Andrews charity shop and eagerly snapped it up
The NME described it thus:
As album titles go, ‘Letting Off The Happiness’, is as blackly ironic as they get. By track two, old Bright Eyes himself, Conor Oberst, has got drunk, buried his brother, considered suicide and ruminated on a dreamless coma.
So clearly not a laugh a minute then.
I'm an admirer of Mr Oberst. Indeed his latest album with Phoebe Bridgers as Better Oblivion Community Center is a strong contender for my album of the year.
However I feel that on occasions he doesn't always get it right. Sometimes his voice verges from the quirky to the irritating and some of his songs are all over the place or just plain weird. There are a good few on this album.
When he gets it right though with his ballads there are few better.
Bright Eyes - The Difference in the Shades
Bright Eyes - June in the Shade
Liked both these tracks - got the same guitar picking shambolic style as Jeffrey Lewis that I go for. Was thinking it was odd that Bright Eyes had somehow eluded me but turns out I actually have 2 albums of theirs which I can't recall having played. I know I know, how can anyone have albums in their collection they haven't played - it's a question I ask myself multiple times. Also turns out I posted the Bright Eyes track, We Are Nowhere And It's Now on Twitter on 7th Feb 2015. Why am I telling you all this? Answers on a postcard please haha
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