Bright Eyes - If Winter Ends | REACTION

Today, I'm listening to Bright Eyes' track "If Winter Ends" from their 1998 LP "Letting Off the Happiness".
#brighteyes #reaction #vinyl #review
Al's Vinyl Collection is my way of sharing my passion with the world. I welcome all, if you're an avid Vinyl record enthusiast or just a passer-by, come and sit with me for 15 minutes to talk about the golden age of music. A civilised format from a more civilised time.
I do not own rights to video, I do not wish to monetise the video - I just want to react to it to bring entertainment and enjoyment for those watching.

[@alsvinylcollection]

Here comes a pinned comment that I totally didn't forget to write! Would you prefer to see 5 tracks from each album listened to over the full album to save time? And if so, please list the 5 you'd like to see and we'll work it out from there :)

[@Only-O_ASMR]

I’d prefer to see full album reactions, especially for the four albums following this one, but I’m kind of obsessive lol.

[@Only-O_ASMR]

Maybe do 2-3 songs per video?

[@thecaitlinator4035]

I do think Bright Eyes is best enjoyed at an album level lyrically and thematically-this becomes more apparent with Fevers and Mirrors but I think especially true starting in 2005 with I’m Wide Awake & Digital Ash. So I would recommend listening to the full albums for those just for your own enjoyment of the album, but I’d totally get not doing actual reaction vids for all of them given the size of the discography, if that would be easier. Curious what others think 😊 If you do decide to do the five songs for this one this would be my top 5 personally (excluding If Winter Ends, which would have made the cut as well lol): 1 - June on the West Coast 2 - The Difference in the Shades 3 - The City Has Sex 4 - Contrast and Compare 5 - Padriac My Prince

[@ericthornberg]

I’d love to hear the original song and then the companion version in the same video. Would make for a neat experience for you and the viewer I would think. I’m all for the whole discography being reviewed but tend to agree with perhaps starting after fevers or at least doing multiple tracks per video until you get up to wide awake and digital ash. Whatever you decide to do we’ll be watching so keep it up!

[@evanedwards3546]

I would rather hear the full albums!!

[@Only-O_ASMR]

Woohoo!

[@linzilooloo7669]

Some of these are so raw, I have grown to appreciate his more produced works such as Wide Awake it's Morning, Fevers and Mirrors or Beginners Mind are ones with great start to finish masterpieces.

[@KrixxLP]

Ouhh glad you enjoyed this one!! It's funny to me that you said that it sounds clearly recorded in a studio! I have the vinyl for this record and it contains a sheet with a few comments by Conor about all of the songs and I THINK that he wrote that these songs were STILL recorded in a basement, and Mike Mogis just did a really great job at mixing it so that they sound professionally produced haha! I wish I could get out the vinyl rn so I could get the direct quote, but I'm moving so they're already all packed up pfff. In these early records there is definitely a lot desperate screaming in the vocals, and like you said it works really well for me because of how it ties into the themes of the lyrics, and he adjusts his voice to go very soft if it works better with the tone of the song, so it's not nonstop screaming. HM I'm not sure about only doing a select few songs with Bright Eyes records, since their albums are usually created as a full experience and the songs often tie into each other (even as early as here, in the noise at the end you can faintly hear a guitar being set up and playing the first few chords of the following track haha), so skipping them could lead to some missed context. But that's just my opinion on it haha, you are absolutely free to approach these videos any way you would like to! I think it'd be awesome to also check out the EPs, as you suspected, they also tie into the albums and add some interesting flavor to them, while also having their own unique identities. I'd absolutely recommend checking out the EPs like Every Day and Every Night! As for the Companion Piece idea, I think I'm leaning more toward doing them separately at the end of the discography because they can be pretty different from the original song, and at least for me, I like to let a song sit on me and digest for a while, which the Companion versions could muddle up a bit. But again, just my thoughts on it hehe Excited for the next one, hope u have a dope dayy

[@asmahism]

A Collection of Songs… is as the title suggests just Conor doing things no “normal” teenager would do and for the most part it doesn’t work but still it was released and is an inspiration because those songs helped birth everything that came after and the world is a better place for that. I hope you dig all the way through his/their discography. It’s a special body of work. Letting Off plants the seeds that grow into their discography. You can appreciate both the music and lyrics together or separate and at the same time they both fit together to create that beautiful human creation called “art”. Addendum: you suggested listening to the original and new companion e.p. Versions in one video and I’ve been hoping someone would do that and was even going to suggest you do it! Good thing I watched the whole video before commenting haha.

[@tahangrant]

Emo-folk Conner, lol. My 2 cents: for some albums, choosing 5 tracks would be tough/foolish...once you get to Fevers especially. This album only has 4-5 I go back to, but they get very, very consistent after this. The EPs, usually 2 tracks will suffice IMO. When you get to Perfect Sonnet off the Every day EP, you'll hear the "turning point", then it becomes difficult to trim (much) off tracklists until the later albums, again IMO. Enjoy, while I/we enjoy!, I've returned to pouring over these albums again after many years, having heard a couple of reaction vids, and most all of it holds up and still blows me away often. I always hope for more music heads to get pulled in because it's a pretty astounding body of work that does get overlooked/under heard.

[@thecaitlinator4035]

Thanks for the shoutout! 😊 I’m just thrilled about the Bright Eyes reactions so thank you! I’m glad you liked this one! I think this is still one of their weaker albums overall, but there are several I enjoy on this one, this song included. I think your analysis was spot on!

[@asmahism]

@the caitlinator, I see you around quite often, especially on the Reaction to the Classic channels and I wanted to say thank you for helping people check out Bright Eyes/ Conor. I comment on almost every video cause in non internet life not one really cares to hear me rant about how important this band is haha. So thank you for getting these channels to check out this beautiful music. I hope Al can stick out the “emo” vocals because he’s got some amazing music coming .

[@thecaitlinator4035]

@@asmahism haha ranting about Bright Eyes is also one of my favorite activities 😂 Big props to Al for starting at the very beginning, I have really been enjoying this channel and Al’s reactions! Love RttC too! My two favorite reaction channels :)

[@asmahism]

@@thecaitlinator4035why don’t more people recognize the genius and light the band brings to the world? Anyway, those are definitely two of the best reaction channels I’ve seen, I need to get more money in the game so I can suggest a few songs ( more so on RttC since Al seems to have a good plan). I’m thinking since you’ve got BE covered id go for solo or solo adjacent Conor stuff. As an aside everyone seems to (fairly) heap praise on Ruminations, I think some of his best work has been with the Mystic Valley Band. Maybe I’m biased but it reminds me of say, (incoming tired cliché) 70s Dylan. The spark of whatever gave them their gift is still obviously there but he’s tempered it some, learned how to control a bit. The words are what they need to be and not extra. Example, Cape Canaveral says so much beauty and truth in relatively few words, the opposite of Waste of Paint(a great song it’s own right) Like Dylan and Blonde on Blonde vs Planet waves. (People sleep on Planet Waves but they are missing out!) Holy shit I wrote a bunch of bs. Sorry but not completely cause I get to talk to a deep Conor fan! (Also way too many) I got lots of thoughts at once.

[@thecaitlinator4035]

@@asmahism I do find in my personal life that Bright Eyes is kind of a hard sell. I think part of the problem may be my selling tactics though, where I play Conor 24/7 until someone asks me to stop 😅 I like the Dylan compare… it’s cliche for a reason (accuracy haha). I have to admit, MVB is probably the side project I got into the least, but One of My Kind, Synesthete Song, and Gentlemen’s Pact are 3 of my favorite Conor songs ever (idk why I gravitated specifically to One of My Kind… I also like the self titled album, though I must admit I had a hard time getting into Outer South (though probably stands for me to revisit it to be honest)). I do love Ruminations, but also LOVED Upside Down Mountain, which I feel like never got a ton of love/attention. Though gotta say, my favoritie Conor side project is Desaparecidos. I was obsessed with Read Music/Speak Spanish in the 2000s haha. I actually saw them live in Omaha in 2010 (I think… maybe 2011?) when they were doing a couple reunion shows before Payola came out. But all in all I think it’s crazy how little credit Conor seems to get in general (outside of I’m Wide Awake, which to be fair I do think is his best/tightest album), when all of his projects are individually really strong imo.

[@Waltar100]

There's actually another ep before LIFTED called Don't Be Frightened of Turning the Page. Not on spotify tho

[@geekexmachina]

poetically winter is seen as the end of life ie autumn years are old age and winter is the dying phase of life. This idea certainly goes back to Norse mythology where the sun is eaten by the wolf and the earth gradually becomes a permanent frozen wasteland. I cant help thinking of thelma and louise when people talk about driving cars off cliffs. As you said the sound is much better here, I feel that as people improve they learn how to reground what they are doing rather than just flying off , using shouting can be effective if done in the correct way for the music, I dont so much mind it when It works, it requires good voice control to work properly.