Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes, a group/band/one man thing that is synonomous with passionate heartfelt songs. So when I heard that they had made a Christmas album covering traditional and classic Christmas songs, I did a double take. I knew I just had to hear it. You can only buy the cd on the Saddle Creek website and proceeds to go the Nebraska AIDS Project.

The first song, "Away In A Manger", is a women softly singing with what is first just the pounding of what sounds like a bass drum in the background. Then there is the sound of children talking or playing and a weird accompanying noise with that. Kind of an odd song to listen to. Song two, "Blue Christmas", is much easier to listen to. Conor Oberst adds his, what sounds like his own sadness, to an already sad song. Next up, "Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem", is Conor singing with the occasional guitar and odd noises. Another kind of hard to listen to song. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", is by far the best song on the album. It's very upbeat and just sounds great. The fifth song, "The First Noel", is Conor and what sounds like someone else singing, while playing away on his acoustic guitar. Another good song, if a bit slow. "Little Drummer Boy" is another well done song. Conor and a women trade off on singing, through some sort of filter it sounds like. The drums have a great sound in this song. "White Christmas", has the acoustic guitar playing away softly in the background while a women sings. A bit slow but still overall good. "Silent Night", is I think the worst song on the album. Conor sings over a weird noise, some wind, and a sleigh bell, and I just find it hard to listen to. "Silver Bells" has a chorus singing and it comes out pretty good. "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" is very soft and slow. Conor and the women (I wish I could find out who she is) sing while towards the end of the song a piano takes the lead. The final song, although not really a song, is "The Night Before Christmas". It is basically a man reading the story of A Night Before Christmas.

Overall, the album's good outweighs the bad. You can definitely tell the songs have that Bright Eyes sound to them. It's not the kind of thing you can listen to on a bright sunny summer day, but its perfect for the Christmas time of year, whether you celebrate or not.