It’s no secret Phoebe Bridgers and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst are Elliott Smith fans. They’ve now combined on a noisy cover of ‘St Ides Heaven’ from Smith’s 1995 self-titled release.
Bright Eyes are gearing up for the reissues of their first three albums – A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997 (1998), Letting Off the Happiness (1998) and Fevers and Mirrors (2000) – on Friday, 27th May. All three reissues comes with a six-track companion EP comprising re-recorded versions of some of the albums’ songs. The companion EPs also include a cover of a song or artist who influenced the original writing and recording sessions.
Letting Off the Happiness includes the Elliott Smith cover, while A Collection of Songs includes a cover of Simon Joyner’s ‘Double Joe’ and Fevers and Mirrors a cover of ‘Hypnotist (Song for Daniel H)’ by Lullaby For the Working Class.
Oberst and his band mates, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, invited the likes of Bridgers, Waxhatchee, M Ward and Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark to help out with the re-recordings. As well as ‘St Ides Heaven’, Bridgers appears on a re-recording of ‘Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh’ from Fevers and Mirrors.
Bridgers and Oberst previously co-founded the band Better Oblivion Community Center, whose self-titled debut album came out in January 2019. Oberst co-wrote a handful of songs on Bridgers’ 2020 LP, Punisher. Listen to ‘St Ides Heaven’ below.
