Issue date: 2/16/07 Section: Listen to this

Media Credit: Julian Lim

Bright Eyes' latest album "Noise Floor Rarities 1998-2005," is a compilation of previously recorded, but unreleased songs. "Noise Floor" is available on both CD and vinyl formats, with five extra songs available on the LP.
Listening to the CD, you can hear how Conor Oberst has evolved as a musician over the years.
When Oberst started Bright Eyes as a side project, he was the front man for another band called Commander Venus, his primary focus between the years of 1995 to 1997. Commander Venus disbanded in 1997, and Bright Eyes became Oberst's focus.
"Noise Floor's" sound is a mixture of laid-back country music with electronic beats with songs about love, depression and apolitical self-pity.
The first song on the album, "Fevers and Mirrors" is not much of a song. Two minutes of it is just ambient crowd chatter, with some harmonics and singing later in the end, however it is a great opener to the album. The lyrics seem like they were taken right from a diary.
One of the best songs on the album is "Devil Town" which is a cover of the song originally done by Daniel Johnston. The instruments that are heard in these songs are harmonics, drum machines, spine shivering piano cords and even ambient crowd chatter.
"Noise Floor" is the type of album that you would want to have playing for Valentines Day due to its deep lyrics and soft melodies.

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