A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997 A Companion

Description

Bright Eyes have announced an extensive reissue/re-recording project on Dead Oceans. The revered band will reissue all nine of their studio albums as a Companion series that 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. Each Companion EP also includes a cover version of an artist they found particularly inspiring at the time of the original recording. First to receive the Companion treatment in May 2022 are Bright Eyes first three albums A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997, Letting Off The Happiness, and Fevers and Mirror.

Its the desire to celebrate that sonic bounty that first got Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. But this wouldnt be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past werent turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. Thats 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 Welch and Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.

I wrote all these songs before I turned 20, Oberst notes on the first wave of reissues. And a lot of them are better than the recordings the recordings were sometimes really bad so it was cool to sing them in a way that doesnt hurt my ears when I listen back. This was the most explicitly retrospective and intimate part of the whole reissue project, as well as the most immediately gratifying. You get a re-do.