"The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Oberst says. "But from Lifted on, I was definitely aware of an audience. Lifted was well-received right away, and then everything happened with Wide Awake and Digital Ash." These days, Oberst is still amusing himself by messing with the extremes Bright Eyes baked into this era's releases, extremes that reflected the polar, with-us-or-against-us, fractious feel of the times.

The Big Picture
Method Acting
False Advertising
You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will
Lover I Don't Have to Love
Bowl of Oranges
Don't Know When But a Day Is Gonna Come
Nothing Gets Crossed Out
Make War
Waste of Paint
From a Balance Beam
Laura Laurent
Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love and to Be Loved)