Bright Eyes - Noise Floor (rarities: 1998-2005) - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2020 . Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was is the 10th studio album by Bright Eyes, the Nebraska band of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott. The marks the band's first project in nearly a decade, following The People's Key (2011). The album was recorded at ARC Studios in Omaha and Electro-Vox and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. It features musical contributions from drummer Jon Theodore and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. Includes the singles InchPersona Non GrataInch, InchForced ConvalescenceInch, InchOne and DoneInch, and InchMariana TrenchInch.

It's the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. But this wouldn't be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past weren't turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. That's where the nine companion EPs come in. Or as Oberst puts it, Inchthe supplemental readingInch for the primary reissues One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album. InchMy thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way.Inch Plus one cover that felt Inchof the eraInch in which that particular albums was made - a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help the EPs come alive in the fullest way, Bright Eyes called in lots of old friends, like Bridgers, M. Ward, and Welch and Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.

One of the things that struck Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. This last wave contains, in Noise Floor, early Bright Eyes songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day, as well as, in Cassadaga and The People's Key, the band's most polished and sophisticated albums. When Bright Eyes toured Cassadega they performed an epic 7 sold-out nights at NYC's Town Hall. What's more grown-up rockstar than that? And yet...InchThematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now,Inch Oberst says, shaking his head. InchThere's something affirming and disheartening about it. It's like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it's just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning.Inch