Every Day and Every Night [EP]

Bright Eyes

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 1, 1999)
• Original Release Date: November 1, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: EP
• Label: Saddle Creek
• ASIN: B00003CYNE
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,501 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Aversion
Bright Eyes is like the light beer of signer/songwriter bands: all the great flavor and full body of frighteningly honest lyrics and passionate conviction as the normal edition, but without all the annoying baggage and pretense usually a part of the lyrically oriented brew.

Painting stark visions of the desperation of daily life, Bright Eyes finds the skeletons in everybodys closets, hanging them up in the yard like drying laundry. Its an odd assortment of skeletons, however, striking up a much more demented and forsaken world than the ones existing in the average listeners head, though somehow songwriter Conor Oberst plays with themes rooted in everyday life, giving Every Day and Every Night a grim familiarity despite its treacherous directions.

Comparisons between lyrics and poetry are tossed about so wildly these days its hard to truly appreciate songwriting like Bright Eyes. Poetic could describe it, but then again, Courtney Love, Chris Cornell and Beck also earned the distinction. Its often a distinction founded more on self-affected bohemian angst than actual lyrical merit, though this time around Bright Eyes helps substance win out over image.

When jumping between themes of self-destruction, mortality and soured love, Bright Eyes cranks out some of the most hauntingly familiar and disturbing lyrics set down this year. With the honesty of artists like Patti Smith and the grueling brutality of Richard Hell, Oberst creates a lyrical world all to his own. From the obsessive "On My Way To Work," creating a simmering stew of death anxiety to the downright frankness of "A New Arrangement," Bright Eyes manage to find the most deeply hidden and tightly wound heartstrings to pluck on.

Musically, Bright Eyes proves a little less challenging, with a mixture of keyboards, acoustic guitars and Obersts squeaky vibrato tenor heralding a record sounding like early Violent Femmes quickly going off the deep end. Fairly slow arrangements, this record nonetheless features swirling complexity in its musical tracks, helping to stand behind its lyrical vision. With a few curve balls thrown to spice things up, such as the backwards sampled back beat of "Neely OHara," or the pedal steel of "A New Arrangement," Bright Eyes musical tracks manages to keep up, albeit a few paces behind, its lyrical mastery.

Product Description
When we released Bright Eyes - 'letting off the Happiness' in 1998, we knew it was the best album we would hear all year, we just didn't expect everyone else to agree with us. The response to that album has been incredible, and Conor Oberst has now proven himself to 'the rest of them' as the next singer-songwriter of true importance to emerge from the American indie music scene. This 5-song EP continues to showcase his talent at combining well-crafted lyrics with haunting music and melodies to produce songs that are manic, depressing, honest, and inspiring. BAND_MEMBERS: Conor Oberst others

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars misunderstood, i think, November 26, 2004

By	Brian Cookson "brutus daoson" (Greenville, RI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

listening to a variety of bright eye's albums over the last few days in particular, i found myself disecting the "depressive" feel to it all. i've decided that bright eye's music isn't depressing at all. it's just realism with a dark use of symbolism/metaphor. I think that the utter darkness of it all just helps to force the listener into thinking about it all at a deep level. it moves you to really consider the notions and concepts that he picks at.

anyway, anything by bright eyes is definately worth purchasing, and i hope people who maybe thought otherwise at first, can understand his music a little better after reading this :)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars incredible beauty and angst - in an easy-to-take package!, April 30, 2002

By	W. D. Rupy (Colorado, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For those who can't yet stomach a full-length CD of fierce, quaking Tiny Tim - like vibrato (like me), this CD EP is the answer. (Blame it on my musician's ears, I guess.) But this CD is a true gem! Out of all BE's CDs, this is the one whose songs really speak to me most poignantly, and has the production and instrumentation I prefer. Most significantly, "A Perfect Sonnet" is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard in my 40 years of life on this earth. Flawed and beautiful, that's what these songs are. A flawed and beautiful masterpiece.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Such sweet sorrow, October 22, 2004

By	Todd Marksmen "Todd" (Bellingham, WA) - See all my reviews

Every Day and Every Night is indie rock(?) at its best. It packs a lot of emotional punch without any cheese! Its poetic and highly interspective. Conner Oburst deals with a lot of darkness in the this EP. AND, it just sounds good. The style is dynamic: melodic and catchy yet original and unconventional. I could decribe Bright Eyes style as -elements of blue-grass and folk combined with acoustic indie rock. Sometimes there is screaming/sobbing, sometimes there are clean cut, pretty harmonies. That sounds strange I know. But give it a chance if you like bands like Cursive, Grandaddy, Modest Mouse, etc. Every Day and Every Night is deep and passionate and if you're deep and passionate, you just might like it.