Best Bright Eyes Album?

[LickTheLizzard]

I'm starting this poll to settle a disagreement with a friend. Which is the best Bright Eyes album? If you don't like Bright Eyes, that is fine...this poll isn't for you.

I know there is other Bright Eyes material, but I just want to know the best between the 5 big ones.

[KC Accidental]

1. wide awake 2. cassadega 3. digital ash 4. people's key 5. fevers 6. lifted

where's the option for people's key?? lizzard licker

[LickTheLizzard]

I can't put an album on the poll that just leaked today.

[KC Accidental]

oh but you could

[LickTheLizzard]

No KC, I could not.

[VigoTheCarpathian]

Lifted
Fevers
Wide Awake
Happiness
Casadega
Digital Ash

is a personal order but not an objective critique. I love all of them, really.

[citizenerased]

Digital Ash barely wins over Lifted for me. Some beautiful shit on it.

[VigoTheCarpathian]

Yeah, you know, maybe digital ash is higher on my list.

[humanoid]

1 vote for Fevers??? ....insanity

[LickTheLizzard]

I had to vote Wide Awake....but it's pretty much a tie with Fevers for me. I could have gone either way on that one, it depends on my mood.

[heart cooks brain]

Wide Awake for sure

I'm surprised Digital Ash is getting so much love. I thought it was a good album but didn't think there was much love for it.

[sdflako]

Fevers has his best and most mature songwriting in my opinion. They're all awesome though.

[VigoTheCarpathian]

I think he could've ran with the Letting Of The Happiness sound for a while(it sounded like the right direction for indie rock at the time) but of course the man likes change and god bless him for it.

This poll has got me a little confused. All these albums are too diverse in sound and theme to compare. Casadega is probably the best produced but who the hell cares. As far as songs go, I vote Fevers, I think, though I voted Lifted on the poll.

[Desaparecidos]

If I absolutely had to choose, probably Fevers

[LickTheLizzard]

I think he could've ran with the Letting Of The Happiness sound for a while(it sounded like the right direction for indie rock at the time) but of course the man likes change and god bless him for it.

This poll has got me a little confused. All these albums are too diverse in sound and theme to compare. Casadega is probably the best produced but who the hell cares. As far as songs go, I vote Fevers, I think, though I voted Lifted on the poll.

So let me give you a little back story. My roomate and I have an ongoing debate over Cassadaga. Both of us are big Bright Eyes fans, but I really don't like Cassadega and he does. He says that I am in the minority of Bright Eyes fans for not liking Cassadaga, I thought this poll might help shed some light on the issue. So far it seems I am right (No one has voted for Cassadaga) but I guess that doesn't mean people don't like it, they just don't like it more than the other albums.

So what do you all think? Is Cassadaga a respectable Bright Eyes album, or not?

To me, it just doesn't have the feel of other the Bright Eyes albums, I think it is over produced and doesnt have the raw energy that makes Bright Eyes great.

[thewoodenman]

not the best imo

[Desaparecidos]

So let me give you a little back story. My roomate and I have an ongoing debate over Cassadaga. Both of us are big Bright Eyes fans, but I really don't like Cassadega and he does. He says that I am in the minority of Bright Eyes fans for not liking Cassadaga, I thought this poll might help shed some light on the issue. So far it seems I am right (No one has voted for Cassadaga) but I guess that doesn't mean people don't like it, they just don't like it more than the other albums.

So what do you all think? Is Cassadaga a respectable Bright Eyes album, or not?

To me, it just doesn't have the feel of other the Bright Eyes albums, I think it is over produced and doesnt have the raw energy that makes Bright Eyes great.

I don't think the poll very accurately proves anything in your arguement, cause I know that personally I love Cassadaga but I definitely don't think it takes priority over the other albums in the poll as the best album under Bright Eyes. I would guess that most fans like it, but not as much as the others. This is an assumption and could not be accurate at all but based on my experience, I've found that the fans who like Cassadaga the most usually are only passionate about Cassadaga and I'm Wide Awake

[VigoTheCarpathian]

To me, it just doesn't have the feel of other the Bright Eyes albums, I think it is over produced and doesnt have the raw energy that makes Bright Eyes great.

I hated it at first for this very reason but it grew on me, quickly, in a big way.
There is something nostalgic about it, like it represented the end if something, and that felt good at the time. I think it's a fantastic album but certainly not his best, or even in the top three.

[LickTheLizzard]

Thanks for the insight. I'm pretty sure this debate will never be completely resolved, and to to be honest...i've never really given cassadaga a fair chance, I just decided I didn't like it and never really listened to it again.

and by the way, your name made me go back and listen to Desaparecidos. It had been years since I've listened to them, and god damn they are great. Is it wishful thinking to hope Bright Eyes might play Man and Wife, the Latter, or maybe The Happiest Place on Earth?

EDIT: The only copy of Cassadaga I own is on vinyl. I'm very much contemplating sitting in front of my record player and giving a good listen, beginning to end.

[Desaparecidos]

and by the way, your name made me go back and listen to Desaparecidos. It had been years since I've listened to them, and god damn they are great. Is it wishful thinking to hope Bright Eyes might play Man and Wife, the Latter, or maybe The Happiest Place on Earth?

Yessssss thank you! How fucking good is Desaparecidos?? So under rated in my opinion. Yeah I think it's definitely wishful thinking, but you'll be very unhappy to know that you and I both missed Desaparecidos playing together again for the first time last summer at the Concert for Equality.


Goddamn I need to move to Omaha...

[Geno_g]

Digital Ash has always been my favorite...

[Kerowackattack]

Wide Awake is easily #1 for me. Lifted, Digital Ash & Fevers are all tied for second in my book. Cassadaga, Happiness sorry. The new album is pretty good. The last two tracks ("One For You, One For Me", in particular) are briiillllllllllliant. Looks like I'll be seeing Conor a seventh time just to hear that track go down.

P.S. Anyone catch his incredible (free) set at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass?
It included Laura Laurent, Four Winds, Well Whiskey, Train Under Water, Easy/Lucky/Free, Bloodline, No One Would Riot for Less, some new song, Spring Cleaning, Method Acting.
My life was completed when he closed with POISON OAK - his best song imho.

[LickTheLizzard]

P.S. Anyone catch his incredible (free) set at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass? It included Laura Laurent, Four Winds, Well Whiskey, Train Under Water, Easy/Lucky/Free, Bloodline, No One Would Riot for Less, some new song, Spring Cleaning, Method Acting.
My life was completed when he closed with POISON OAK - his best song imho.

That is an excellent set list. I hope we get something like that at Coachella.










Swag.

[citizenerased]

Cassadaga took like a year to grow on me but it's a damn good album worthy of the Bright Eyes name. Soul Singer In A Session Band, Hot Knives, Cleanse Song, and No One Would Riot For Less are all some of his best.

The Four Winds EP also has one of my favorites, Cartoon Blues.

[shakermaker113]

P.S. Anyone catch his incredible (free) set at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass?
It included Laura Laurent, Four Winds, Well Whiskey, Train Under Water, Easy/Lucky/Free, Bloodline, No One Would Riot for Less, some new song, Spring Cleaning, Method Acting.
My life was completed when he closed with POISON OAK - his best song imho.

that new song was probably rosevelt room, which ended up on the second mystic valley album. he was playing it on the last bright eyes tour.

are you sure that was the bluegrass festival? I don't see bright eyes listed on any of the past lineups.

[DANCE MAGIC]

where's the "all of them are bullshit" option?

[DropletsOfYes&No]

I'm surprised Digital Ash is getting so much love. I thought it was a good album but didn't think there was much love for it.

Digital Ash hands down because its the Bright Eyes album for people who weren't really fans. It put a different element of Conor's perspective and therefore I could appreciate it where I wasn't a fan before. After that I would have to say Cassadega was close to brilliant

[LickTheLizzard]

where's the "all of them are bullshit" option?

[VigoTheCarpathian]

Good call on cartoon blues; heard it live and it was awesome.

We should make a best of b-sides list. Should we do it here or start another thread? I say here:

Kathy with a K
Cartoon blues

add

[Desaparecidos]

that new song was probably rosevelt room, which ended up on the second mystic valley album. he was playing it on the last bright eyes tour.

are you sure that was the bluegrass festival? I don't see bright eyes listed on any of the past lineups.

I think he's talking about a show Conor did with The Felice Brothers as his backing band. He played like four shows in california including Big Sur, San Francisco (the festival) and Pomona and one other. That track list sounds sooo good though, I was supposed to go up to that show but missed it for a whole lot of nothing, something I'll regret forever.

The new song he played, I'm willing to bet, was Coyote Song, a song he did in protest of the Arizona immigration law, he first played it at Concert for Equality in Omaha and the four California shows with the Felice Brothers were right after that.