Collection of Songs

Bright Eyes | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 1, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Saddle Creek
• ASIN: B000008UO0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,391 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Patient Hope in New Snow

2. The Awful Sweetness of Escaping Sweat

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars under certain circumstances, March 10, 2005

By 

Kasey - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collection of Songs (Audio CD)

Do not buy this album if:
-you cannot stand lo-fi music
-have never heard bright eyes before
-have heard Conor Oberst's other material and already decided that you cannot tolerate his voice (because his voice is worse in this album)

Buy this album if:
-you already know and love Conor Oberst
-are more of a "words person" than a "music person". I havent heard the two albums he just came out with, but excluding those since i cannot judge them, "Lifted" is his best musically. It is argueable if this is his best lyrically, but I think it is his most intimate.
-buy this album even if you have emo-allergies. I cannot stand 99% of anything that would remotely be classified under "emo" except for this, which most would agree could be call "emo-folk" with more emphasis on the "folk" than the "emo".
-you think that the idea of a guy recording on a four-track in his basement is cool.

I understand that many people will not like this album. And I understand why, but i personally love it, and many other people will too. If my opinion was the only one that mattered I would have given it a 5 star rating, rather than a 4 star.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a fan, November 30, 2001

By 

mia (a womb) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collection of Songs (Audio CD)

i feel compelled to comment on the reviewer above and his naive, if not misguided, offering. this early collection of work to come from mr. oberst was not originally planned to be released and one might view this as luck on "our" part. these were songs penned and sung at an age when most of his contemporaries where just learning what long division was. his voice and musical arrangements are clearly not developed enough to reach the high standard his fans hold him to today, as is obvious in the review above, but they showcase conor's unmisktable talent being born so early. at the age of thirteen he sings about moments i, at twenty-one, can only hope to experience let alone put into words. while i do recommend aquainting oneself with his more sought after LPs, this is a real treat for any true bright eyes fan. and as a related sidenote, if you have not yet had the pure orgasmic experience of catching a live show please do yourself the favor. no distance is too great to have your paradigm shifted.
[edited to say: for a limited time at saddle-creek.com you can order a christmas album done by Bright Eyes & Co. The 11 or so songs are traditionally what you would expect a christmas album to contain but they all have that saddle creek kick to them thanks to such excellent production. All the proceeds go to the Nebraska Aids Charity and this album is exclusive to the website (i.e., not going to be anywhere else.) This will, i am sure, become a collector's item so go support a good cause and get some groovy tunes out of it.]

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early Bright Eyes, May 30, 2004

By 

blueroses (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collection of Songs (Audio CD)

I'm a huge fan of Bright Eyes so of course I loved this album. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, as I consider Bright Eyes to be more of an acquired taste than anything. This album in particular took a while to grow on me. A lot of people don't like Conor's voice, and I didn't really like it when I first heard it, but it really grew on me and now he is one of my favorites. About this album, the recording is really low quality (it was recorded... in his basement!) and...well, he was really young when he recorded these songs. Before you judge him too harshly, these songs were recorded when he was 15 or 16 years old. I like a lot of the songs on this album. Some of them aren't that great, admittedly.

There are some really great songs on here like 'Patient Hope in New Snow', 'Saturday as Usual', 'Falling out of love at this volume', 'Puella quam amo est pulchra', 'a celebration upon completion', 'All of the Truth', 'Lila', and 'Feb. 15th'. I like this album and I would recommend it to anyone who was already a big fan of Bright Eyes' later work. I think you would have to be a fan already to be able to appreciate this album. When I consider how young he was when this was recorded, I'm impressed.

The other great thing about this CD is the review printed on the CD itself.