The first three are innocent in a way, because we didnt have an audience when we were making them, Oberst says. But from Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground on, I was definitely aware of an audience. Lifted was well-received right away, and then everything happened with Wide Awake and Digital Ash In A Digital Urn.

Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles Take It Easy (Love Nothing), from the austere, remote Digital Ash, and Lua, from the warm, folky Wide Awake – debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100.

First Day of My Life, also from Wide Awake, would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Musics readers poll. Bright Eyes had officially