Bright Flight
{{For|the Missouri scholarship program|Bright Flight (Missouri scholarship)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Bright Flight
| type = Album
| artist = Silver Jews
| cover = Brightflight.jpg
| alt =
| released = November 20, 2001
| recorded = Hum Depot, Berry Hill, TN
| venue =
| studio =
| genre = Indie rock
| length = 35:18
| label = Drag City{{Cite web|url=https://www.dragcity.com/products/bright-flight|title=Silver Jews - Bright Flight | Drag City|website=www.dragcity.com}}
Domino Recording Company{{Cite web|url=https://www.dominomusic.com/releases/silver-jews/bright-flight/cd|title=Silver Jews - Bright Flight (CD) | Domino Mart|website=Domino Recording Company}}
| producer = Mark Nevers{{Cite web|url=http://stylusmagazine.com/review_ID_1013.html|title=Silver Jews - Bright Flight - Stylus Magazine|website=stylusmagazine.com}}
| prev_title = American Water
| prev_year = 1998
| next_title = Tanglewood Numbers
| next_year = 2005
}}
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = AllMusic
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/bright-flight-mw0000591665|title=Bright Flight - Silver Jews | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic|via=www.allmusic.com}}
|rev4 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
|rev4score = {{rating|3|5}}{{cite book |last1=Larkin |first1=Colin |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |date=2006 |publisher=MUZE |volume=7 |pages=456–457}}
|rev3 = Drowned in Sound
| rev5 = Pitchfork
| rev5Score = 8.5/10{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/7161-bright-flight/|title=Silver Jews: Bright Flight|website=Pitchfork}}
| rev6 = The New Rolling Stone Album Guide
| rev6Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite book |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |date=2004 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |page=735}}
|rev7 = Stylus Magazine
}}
Bright Flight is the fourth studio album by American indie rock band Silver Jews, released in 2001.{{Cite web|url=http://www.furious.com/perfect/silverjews.html|title=Silver Jews|website=www.furious.com}}
"Tennessee" was chosen as the title track for an EP that also included "Long Long Gone", "I'm Gonna Love The Hell Out of You", and "Turn Your Guns Around".
Critical reception
The Guardian wrote: "Fusing gorgeous, tear-sodden country melodies with lyrics that inspire love and anxiety in equal measure, Bright Flight poetically captures a drunken night spent contemplating suicide while staring at the Nashville skyline."{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/feb/22/shopping.artsfeatures4|title=Mississippi belter|first1=Reviews by John|last1=Aizlewood|first2=Garry|last2=Mulholland|first3=Dave|last3=Simpson|first4=Caroline|last4=Sullivan|first5=Dorian|last5=Lynskey|first6=Betty|last6=Clarke|first7=Pascal|last7=Wyse|newspaper=The Guardian |date=February 22, 2002|via=www.theguardian.com}} The Stranger wrote that "the stories told and the places visited are rich with radiant imagery--not always happy, but encouraging in their pure, honest existence."{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-gift-of-travel/Content?oid=9502|title=The Gift of Travel|first=Kathleen|last=Wilson|website=The Stranger}} Trouser Press wrote that the album "is not, on the whole, as agreeably encompassing as American Water, it is the work of an artist increasingly able to get to the emotional heart of a song without relying on the crutches of irony and overt cleverness."{{cite web |title=Silver Jews |url=https://trouserpress.com/reviews/silver-jews/ |website=Trouser Press |access-date=10 January 2021}}
Track listing
{{track listing
| all_writing = David Berman, except "Friday Night Fever", written by Blake Mevis, Dean Dillon and Frank Dycus
| headline =
| total_length = 35:18
| title1 = Slow Education
| length1 = 3:07
| title2 = Room Games and Diamond Rain
| length2 = 4:34
| title3 = Time Will Break the World
| length3 = 3:17
| title4 = I Remember Me
| length4 = 5:32
| title5 = Horseleg Swastikas
| length5 = 3:20
| title6 = Transylvania Blues
| length6 = 3:03
| title7 = Let's Not and Say We Did
| length7 = 2:59
| title8 = Tennessee
| length8 = 4:10
| title9 = Friday Night Fever
| length9 = 2:44
| title10 = Death of an Heir of Sorrows
| length10 = 2:35
}}
Personnel
Musicians
- David Berman - lead vocals, guitar
- Cassie Berman - vocals on "Slow Education", "Let's Not and Say We Did", and "Tennessee", bass
- William Tyler - guitar, vocals on "Let's Not and Say We Did"
- Mike Fellows - bass
- Tim Barnes - drums, percussion
- Paul Niehaus - pedal steel guitar
- Tony Crow - piano, organ, electric piano, synthesizer, vocals on "Let's Not and Say We Did" and "Friday Night Fever"
Additional Personnel
- Hilary Small - artwork
- Mark Nevers - engineer, producer
- Mike Fellows - assistant producer
References
{{reflist}}
{{Silver Jews}}
{{Authority control}}