Bright Eyes have announced an extensive reissue / re-recording project on Dead Oceans for 2022. The revered band, who moved their entire recording catalog over to the Secretly Group label last year, have unveiled plans to re-issue all nine of their studio albums as a ‘Companion’ series with additional recordings created together at their ARC Studios in Omaha. The album reissue series will be partnered with the release of a Companion EP of five new recordings of songs contained on the original release plus a cover version from an artist they found particularly inspiring at the time of the original recording. The Companion series gives Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nathaniel Walcott a chance to revisit some of their earlier material and re-work it entirely – with the occasional addition of some talented friends. This ambitious project will see the release of 54 new recordings over the coming year.
Today’s announcement comes with the release of three new Companion series recordings: ‘Falling Out of Love At This Volume,’ ‘Contrast And Compare’ (feat. Waxahatchee) and ‘Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh’ (feat. Phoebe Bridgers).
First to receive the Companion treatment on May 27th are Bright Eyes’ first three albums – A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997, Letting Off The Happiness (initially released in 1998) and the now iconic 2000 LP Fevers and Mirrors.
Bright Eyes began in 1995 as a recording moniker for a then 15-year old Conor Oberst’s work with producer/multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis. Mogis and composer/ arranger/ multi-instrumentalist Nathaniel Walcott became fully fledged members in 2006. Over the course of 23 years the music’s impact and influence has been significant; Bright Eyes’ songs have been covered by dozens of artists, including Lorde, The Killers, Mac Miller, Dave Rawlings & Gillian Welch, Phoebe Bridgers, Snow Patrol, Jason Mraz and beabadoobee. ??For a band that’s often been perceived as an outlier, the depth, breadth, and impact of the Bright Eyes canon is remarkable. Over the last two-plus decades, as Bright Eyes has released one after another time capsule LP’s – urgent dispatches from transcendent, fleeting eras of our collective lives – they’ve also simultaneously been assembling a robust, mature, narratively cohesive discography.
“It’s a meaningful way to connect with the past that doesn’t feel totally nostalgic and self-indulgent,” says Conor Oberst of the ambitious series. “We are taking these songs and making them interesting to us all over again. I like that. I like a challenge. I like to be forced to do something that’s slightly hard, just to see if we can.”
It’s the desire to celebrate that 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 album 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 some old friends; for the first batch of releases the featured guests are Waxahatchee, Phoebe Bridgers, M. Ward and Becky Stark (of Lavender Diamond).
DSP/ Pre-order for Bright Eyes Companion Series
Tracklists for Companion EPs (new recordings):
A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997: A Companion
1) “Driving Fast Through A Big City At Night”
2) “Solid Jackson”
3) “A Celebration Upon Completion”
4) “Falling Out of Love At This Volume”
5) “Exaltation On A Cool Kitchen Floor”
6) “Double Joe” (Simon Joyner cover)
Letting Off The Happiness: A Companion
1) “The Difference In The Shades”
2) “The City Has Sex (feat. Waxahatchee)”
3) “Contrast And Compare (feat. Waxahatchee)”
4) “Kathy With A K’s Song (feat. M Ward)”
5) “St. Ides Heaven (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)” (Elliott Smith cover)
6) “June On The West Coast (feat. Becky Stark)”
Fevers and Mirrors: A Companion:
1) “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”
2) “A Scale, A Mirror, And Those Indifferent Clocks (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”
3) “Arienette”
4) “Hypnotist (Song for Daniel H)” (Lullaby For The Working Class cover)
5) “When The Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”
6) “A Spindle, A Darkness, A Fever, And A Necklace (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”
Tracklists for Album Reissues:
A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997:
1) “The Invisible Gardener”
2) “Patient Hope In New Snow”
3) “Saturday As Usual”
4) “Falling Out of Love At This Volume”
5) “Exaltation On A Cool Kitchen Floor”
6) “The Awful Sweetness Of Escaping Sweat”
7) “Puella Quam Amo Est Pulchra”
8) “Driving Fast Through A Big City At Night”
9) “How Many Lights Do You See?”
10) “I Watched You Taking Off”
11) “A Celebration Upon Completion”
12) “Emily, Sing Something Sweet”
13) “All Of The Truth”
14) “One Straw”
15) “Lila”
16) “A Few Minutes On Friday”
17) “Supriya”
18) “Solid Jackson
19) “Feb. 15th”
20) “The ‘Feel Good’ Revolution”
Letting Off The Happiness:
1) “If Winter Ends”
2) “Padraic My Prince”
3) “Contrast And Compare”
4) “The City Has Sex”
5) “The Difference In The Shades”
6) “Touch”
7) “June On The West Coast”
8) “Pull My Hair”
9) “A Poetic Retelling Of An Unfortunate Seduction”
10) “Tereza And Tomas”
Fevers and Mirrors:
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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