Oberst's older brother Justin started Saddle Creek records in 1993 to put out tapes Conor recorded. Less than 10 years later, the label headed up an acclaimed Omaha, NE, scene including Conor's buddies in Cursive and the Faint. 

 The tender Every Day and Every Night EP turns the normal travails of teenhood–boredom, love lost–into meditations on the joys and disappointments of making art. Oberst races through the philosophy books he's probably only partly read. 

 Fever and Mirrors–he title refers to Oberst's search for rapture in sickness and obsessive self-reflexivity–opens with a young boy haltingly reading aloud a book he clearly doesn't understand. 

 On Lifted , Oberst finally quit squinting in the spotlight he’d been occupying and put out the most satisfying set of his early career.  

 As a sojourn from defining art, love, and life itself, Oberst turned his focus to late capitalism and economic injustice with Desaparecidos. His crimped holler perfectly suits the raucous, new waveÐinflected indie rock. 

 With Wide Awake, Oberst dialed back his trademark intensity without sacrificing acuteness of feeling. “Lua,” a pretty meditation on drinking and drugging, is a highlight, its melancholy uncluttered by rage or philosophical abstractions.  

 Oberst made one of his most ambitious (and popular) statements yet, simultaneously releasing two albums: I'm Wide Awake and this electro-pop experiment. Not every song is a success, but many show just how capable a songwriter Oberst truly is.  

 On Cassadaga, which ranges from rollicking country-rock ("Four Winds") to gorgeous balladry laced with strings and a female backup chorus ("Make a Time to Love Me"), Oberst lays his claim on Americana, sounding more confident than ever. 

 Motion Sickness, a live album recorded in 2005 and released in 2007, documents the breadth of the Bright Eyes catalog, and Oberst's unburdened charisma in a concert setting. 

 Despite its being his first official solo album, Conor Oberst finds the songwriter more settled than ever, plumbing his country leanings for some of his best songs yet.  

 On Outer South, by contrast, Oberst is too laid-back, ceding (on six of 16 tracks) singing and songwriting to band members who were best left behind the scenes. His songs are notable for their easy joy.