Bright Eyes Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground

Sometimes heralded as a "new Dylan," Conor Oberst might just as well be proclaimed the new Gordon Gano or Loudon Wainwright III, but those names wouldn't make for headlines of the same size. At any rate, Lifted - 2002's installment in his Bright Eyes' collective's burgeoning discography - is another testament from a pissed-off singer-songwriter who, unafraid to look uncool, ends up looking pretty cool in the end. "It's cool if you keep quiet, but I prefer singing," he all but yells on the opening "Big Picture." That's certainly true as he holds forth on another dozen songs that happily, passionately conflate the political and the personal. Fans will debate what the best Bright Eyes album is, but Lifted is the sort of achievement few can argue against.