Noise Floor!

Noise Floor: rarities 1998-2005

Since the very beginning of my love for Bright Eyes, many of my favourite recordings have been the ones hardest to find. Those songs that were sessions or split singles with short lived bands; appeared on compilations for friendly labels and zines, or 7” vinyl released on some obscure label in an American town I’d never heard of and could barely pronounce - they were always the ones to cut deepest. I collected these recordings, whether on battered cassette tapes with sun melted corners or on vinyl encased in pretty pictures, now displayed lovingly upon my defunct 1960s record player. I treasure them as if they were worth all the gold in the world, but that doesn’t mean butterflies didn’t flutter inside when I read Saddle Creek were to release a compilation of rare and unreleased material, recorded 1998-2005.

Noise Floor and I have now spent three long and happy days together. There’s no polish or perfect production. There is the nostalgic rawness of those early songs, so thoughtfully put together on A Collection of Songs 1995-97. I no longer have to steal time with unfamiliar record players to listen to Motion Sickness or wind the tape back into the cassette with a broken pencil for the Trees Get Wheeled Away, and although I miss the crackle of a needle on vinyl and the chugging of an old cassette player, I am truly grateful.

With last years twin releases a fondly distant memory and the Conor backlash (I believe it was the ‘emo’ and the ‘hair’) somewhat subsided, this record is a perfect reminder of why my love for Bright Eyes began.

It’s the sound of the basement and the fragility in the voice, the foot tapping on the concrete floor.