Bright Eyes Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground CD

Full title - Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground. Born in 1980 in Omaha and recording since he was 13, Conor Oberst owns a voice that quakes with the tumultuous energy that only youth can produce. Slipcase. 2002.

Bright Eyes: Conor Oberst (vocals, arranger, guitar, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, organ).
Additional personnel includes: Todd Baechle (vocals); Andy LeMaster (electric guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Maria Taylor (piano, organ, background vocals).
Recorded at Presto Studios, Lincoln, Nebraska between December 2001 & January 2002.
Personnel: Andy LeMaster (vocals, electric guitar, keyboards); Jiha Lee (vocals, flute); Orenda Fink (vocals, trumpet); Maria Taylor (vocals, piano, organ); Jennifer Lewis, Todd Fink (vocals); Mike Mogis (electric guitar, dobro, banjo, hammer dulcimer, mandolin, vibraphone, glockenspiel, bells); Ted Stevens (electric guitar); Tiffany Kowalski (violin); Clark Baechle (clarinet, drums); Chris Brooks (piano); Mike Sweeney (drums).
Audio Mixer: Mike Mogis.
Recording information: Presto!, Lincoln, NE (12/2001-01/2002).
When Bright Eyes brainchild Conor Oberst issued Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground in August 2002, he was 22 years old. Critics were already calling him the "indie Bob Dylan," but the new millennium had seen a lot of those introverted, intelligent types (Ryan Adams, Beck). Bright Eyes, though, delivered a solid, intricately produced album without the majors' monotony. Immediately, one can sense Oberst's literate approach. His vocal curdle is abrasive yet warm. It's similar to the cooing of Robert Smith, but lush in heartache like Paul Westerberg, leaving the storybook of Lifted or The Story to earn massive praise. "Waste of Paint" is rough-cut with edgy acoustics, while "From a Balance Beam" glows with pop-like optimism. Chimes and simple drumming keep the story of personal insecurity and the fear of the unknown coming alive in a dreamy sort of way. Even when he's aching his way through the pop rumble of "Method Acting," Bright Eyes convincingly lures one into his eclectic musical world. Oberst obviously has the talent to support the hype. "Lover I Don't Have to Love" is a dark number with its Radiohead-like doom and gloom; however, the piano swirl of "A Bowl of Oranges" offers a brighter reflection. On Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground, Bright Eyes has mixed badness with beauty for a sonic storybook that relates to everyone. It's slightly overwhelming at first, but one must allow a grace period to fully absorb the abstract desire behind this album. ~ MacKenzie Wilson
Nebraskan singer/songwriter Conor Oberst began combining troubadourism with emo rock at a ridiculously early age, inspired by the older, more literate Nebraska cult hero Simon Joyner (whose huge influence is somehow always overlooked by journalists). Recording prolifically for local indie label Saddle Creek, Oberst (as Bright Eyes, with or without accompaniment) gradually refined his Neil Young-with-ADD sound over the years. LIFTED OR THE STORY IS IN THE SOIL...is his most ambitious outing to date, featuring keyboards, horns, woodwinds, strings, etc., all laid out in a panoramic manner that stands in marked contrast to Oberst's decidedly lo-fi beginnings. The songwriting seems to have jumped up a notch too, and for what's stil essentially a singer-songwriter record, that doesn't hurt a bit.

Rolling Stone (12/26/02, p.104) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2002"
Rolling Stone (11/14/02, p.86) - "...Best indie-rock record of the year..."
Spin (1/03, p.71) - Ranked #20 on Spin's list of 2002's "Albums of the Year" - "...[Conor] Oberst stages an epic folk-rock musical scripted from his tortured diary."
Q (9/02, p.101) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Intense and good....His gift lies in melding explosive lyrical candor to folk-rock melodies that heave with incongruous levity, like Prince collaborating with Robert Smith."
Uncut (1/03, p.97) - Ranked #69 in Uncut's "100 Best Albums of the Year"
Uncut (10/02, p.101) - 3.5 out of 5 - "...steamhammer profundity and arrestingly magical backdrops..."
Mojo (Publisher) (1/03, p.74) - Ranked #28 in Mojo's "Best Albums of 2002"
Mojo (Publisher) (9/02, p.96) - "It's the most accomplished of the four Bright Eyes albums...a record brave enough to place content over style."
NME (Magazine) (8/10/02, p.32) - 8 out of 10 - "...Confused, touching and idiotically ambitious: hard work that, undoubtedly, repays the effort."