Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground (studio album) by Bright Eyes

From ExTeaSea 04/04/2021 21:36

This is much better than I remember. Never gave it much of a chance back in the day. It's great though.

My favorite album from the 21st-century.

While most audiophiles will be quick to point out "Wide Awake" as Bright Eyes' magnum opus, I have personally found the consensus among those fans who have immersed themselves in the band's entire discography that "Lifted" is on top. Even with such greats as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen this album is untouchable lyrically. The sheer amount of topics and emotions it spans covering hope, shame, salvation, self-loathing, agoraphobia, alcoholism, agnosticism, true love, fake love, loss, pride, the list goes on. Conor Oberst has created both an album so vast the majority can relate to it and so specific one will hauntingly think its addressing them personally.

From MrFrogger 01/23/2013 01:12

While not quite bright eyes's finest achievement "lifted" stands as a great example of their musical scope and potential.

From paladisiac 01/10/2013 22:20

I reread my review to find it's two different reviews for this same album, appended. Anyway i append it, it's a very good album.

while the lyrics are beautiful for the most part, the music doesn't do anything for me.
I'm Wide Awake It's Morning is far better.

Like a story to my ears and the lyrics can be superb. He's practically screaming on some songs too. paladisiac review is great, this album probably needs someone who familiar with the journey to describe it. Must have been many things I missed the first few times around.

From paladisiac 12/11/2011 03:55

The first song i heard was "lover I don't have to love", a dark tale scorning any need for love or love's meaning. If it weren't for a couple bookending chaotic missteps and "just good" songs in between, this'd be a great, top 5 of the decade album, meaning a little editing or refinishing would've propelled this mutha. He starts with a Bright Eyes tradition, some long, talking (TWO MINUTE) piece before the first song actually starts (which has been at least somewhat annoying on every album except one). Conor prepares you for the torture he feels within on "the big picture" and then lays out beautifully-illustrated track upon track until the breather "don't know when but a day is gonna come". Confessional lyrics abound from a kid (early 20s at this point) with a rich vocabulary. Hear it on "method acting" when he sings "I don't know what tomorrow brings / It is alive with such possibilities / All I know is I feel better when I sing / Burdens are lifted from me / That's my voice rising ". There's a literacy and poetry and an emotion that combine to make this a "goose bumpy" album for me. There's a rage in his torture as at the end of "method acting" or "". There's a delicacy to the life he sings about like on "false advertising" where he declares "Fuck my face. Fuck my name, / They are brief and false advertisements..." and "bowl of oranges" where a stranger's smile and held hand cure poor health and crying eyes yield growth. These type of moments populate at least 2/3rds of an album and that 2/3rds I love. This is the drama that is life where "all anyone's listening for are the mistakes". First song I heard was the cruel, self-deprecating s&m force of "lover I don't have to love" that tinkles in like a dark radiohead or eels song where he wants "a girl who's too sad to give a fuck" and "a boy who's so drunk he doesn't talk" because "Love's an excuse to get hurt". Song "don't know when but a day's gonna come" brings an anarchic, apocalyptic bridge -- a personal tale of damnation where conor sings "Is it true what I heard about the Son of God? / Did he come to save? Did he come at all? / And if I dried his feet, / with my dirty hair, / would he make me clean again? ". No, "there is no truth. / There is only you and what you make the truth". Song "nothing gets crossed out" is a beautiful goosy song, especially when those precious female backing vocals float in just after "Well the future's got me worried such awful thoughts / My head's a carousel of pictures, the spinning never stops / I just want someone to walk in front / And I'll follow the leader". "waste of paint" is a sickly sad and hilarious set of about 6 vignettes about the preciousness and futility of life most sung in the first person -- a set shrink couch journals where the shrinker's a bit warped too. "from a balance beam" is the last great song on this album -- the last two songs are nice, but peter in impact. The last track is uproarious fun but a little imperfect -- wouldn't that make for a good life?

Track picks: Big Picture / You Will? You. Will? You. Will? You. Will? / Nothing Gets Crossed Out