Bright Eyes

Few pop stars were more unlikely than Conor Oberst, who led the ironically named Bright Eyes. His singing voice was proudly imperfect, his songs deep and emotionally loaded, his music hovering somewhere between avant-folk, orchestral pop and electronica. But the prolific Oberst flourished both creatively and commercially, leaving the door open for other misfits to do the same. Raised in Omaha, Oberst began writing songs at a young age, debuting at 13 with Water, a cassette album recorded in his parents' basement. Two years later he and three friends (including future members of the Faint and Cursive) formed the band Commander Venus, which fell loosely into the emo genre and received a good amount of "next big thing" hype. But after rushing through their second album The Uneventful Vacation on a high-school break, they fell out with each other and split. Most of Oberst's future releases would appear on Saddle Creek, the label cofounded by his brother Justin. While dozens of musicians passed through the Bright Eyes lineup, guitar and string player Mike Mogis would hang in as Oberst's right-hand man. After playing in a couple of short-lived bands, the still-teenaged Oberst introduced Bright Eyes with A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997, mostly including songs that were intended for Commander Venus. Though less produced that later efforts, the sound of the album-part homemade acoustic and part electronic, part spoken and part melodic-hinted at what was to come. By the time of 2002's Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground, the fourth album in as many years, the music had grown lush and orchestral, and he was earning favorable comparisons to everyone from Dylan to the Cure's Robert Smith. It cemented his status as a cult and critical favorite, and he followed that with a few sideline projects including a Christmas album at year's end. Mainstream attention grew with the release of two acclaimed albums on the same day in January 2005; the acoustic I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and the electronic Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. Arguably the band's most ambitious album, 2007's Casadega matched philosophical and spiritually-themed lyrics to accessible, country-tinged music. Oberst supported this with a string of shows at New York's Town Hall, with notable guests including Lou Reed, Norah Jones and Steve Earle. Oberst also became increasingly active politically, playing the Vote for Change tour (with R.E.M. and Bruce Springsteen) in 2004, an Obama rally in 2008 and an ACLU benefit in 2010. His last album with Bright Eyes, The People's Key, was consciously louder and more anthemic. Though Bright Eyes ended in 2011, Oberst remained prolific as ever, alternating three collaborative projects (the Mystic Valley Band, the Monsters of Folk, and the punk-inspired Desaparecidos). After pulling out of a 2015 tour with the latter band due to exhaustion, he reappeared in 2016 with the reflective solo album Ruminations. A sequel, Salutations was released in 2017.