Bright Eyes - Fevers And Mirrors

2022 reissue

The third album from Bright Eyes

Here's a catchy collection of elaborate pop that's been perfectly captured on a nickel budget. Frontman Conor Oberst delivers heart-wrenching performances track after track, as his bleeding heart voice and heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics permeate the songs, giving them the distinct edge that make them Bright Eyes tunes.

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, "the supplemental reading" for the primary reissues: One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album.

"My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way." Plus one cover that felt "of the era" 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 Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.

1. A Spindle, a Darkness, a Fever, and a Necklace

2. A Scale, a Mirror, and Those Indifferent Clocks

3. The Calendar Hung Itself

4. Something Vague

5. The Movement of a Hand

6. Arienette

7. When the Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass

8. Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh

9. The Center of the World

10. Sunrise, Sunset

11. An Attempt to Tip the Scales

12. A Song to Pass the Time

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