'From a Balance Beam,' Bright Eyes
From 2002's 'Lifted: Or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground'

When this album came out I literally scraped coins together -- some from the floor of my car, some from the floor of my apartment -- and went to Newbury Comics on Newbury Street in Boston, and bought it. I remember the price even: $11.88. Best $11.88 I ever spent.

While this album produced a few songs that are still in the Bright Eyes rotation, 'From a Balance Beam' -- a song deals with stage fright and the pressure that comes with being in the spotlight -- is the one that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and turns my skin cold. Conor Oberst writes like a Shakespearean poet on this album. He tells lavish stories accented with imagery.

"So I fell like a girl from a balance beam/A gymnasium of eyes all were holding on to me/I lifted one foot to cross the other and I felt myself slipping/It was a small mistake/Sometimes that's all it takes."

Consistent with most Bright Eyes songs, 'From a Balance Beam' is lavishly orchestrated with sweeping choruses and marching-band style drum flourishes. It's a perfect song. Love, loss, inhibition and, in the end, release.

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