In “Eagle On A Pole” Conor Oberst sings “I never could get used to happy sounds,” but his new self-titled album is actually plenty full of happy sounds. Take the brief clap-a-long march of “NYC – Gone, Gone.” With a title like that you wouldn’t be wrong to expect some sort of 9/11 ballad, but the rock ‘n’ roll Oberst delivers is anything but maudlin. It’s not that Conor Oberst is a laugh riot, but it definitely finds Mr. Bright Eyes and his Mystic Valley Band on a road trip and a rambling lyricism less in the realm of “When The President Talk To God” or his early days. Think “Four Winds”‘ swing without people dying or bodies decomposing tonight in abandoned buildings. Of course, he never entirely drops the political, but there isn’t the ham-fisted doctrinaire of the less-than-stellar Cassadaga. He recorded the dozen new tracks in Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico. The songs have a warmth to them. Something rural and dusty. The crickets in the late-night horn call of “Valle Mistico (Ruben’s Song).” The lemonade in standout opener “Cape Canaveral.” The desert and open sky in “Sausalito.” And, of course, “Moab,” even in name alone, but also its central “there’s nothing that the road cannot heal” hook.
The material isn’t new to the ears of Oberst fans. We all heard the unfortunately titled but well-played “Souled Out!!!” and the mellower, but rollicking “Danny Callahan” a little while ago and then the entire thing streamed. We even already knew what it looks like — Conor asleep in his hammock in his best cave. That could be another reason why it feels so natural, dusty, rambling. The rambling doesn’t always work: “I Don’t Want to Die (In the Hospital)” is pretty generic barroom blues riffing. But that’s minor cause for alarm.
Maybe Conor Oberst‘s greatest attribute — or a quality of the album that exists because of its other attributes — is that it almost feels too short. It’s not. There are 12 songs and over 40 minutes of music. But when you come to the end of the somber, man-and-his-guitar of “Milk Thistle” — “you bring peace to midnight like a spotted owl” — it feels too soon. It also feels so quietly assured (“If somebody sweats you / you just point him out to me”). No need for histrionics or theatrics. No need to make some overwrought flourish or group sing-a-long.
It ends like Oberst’s career began, a guy alone in a room spitting into a microphone: A whisper with a weeping Lazarus, the unending parade of newspapers, one more cup of coffee before the day goes away, a repetition of the song’s main opening image: “If I go to heaven I’ll be bored as hell, like a crying baby at the bottom of a well.” Then a click, as the recorder shuts off. Heaven would be boring because as much shit as Oberst gets for being overly emotional and quavery, it’s in the fragile hell of the everyday that he’s found his best material (as far as the kid at the bottom of the well … remember the brother drowning in a bathtub in Fevers & Mirrors?). On CO he finds a balance between growing up/staying young, between his more mature storytelling and his younger heartache. Maybe it was time he dropped Bright Eyes as a name and was somehow reborn, an older and wiser version of the kid who released that last non-Bright Eyes Oberst album 13 years ago.
Conor Oberst is out 8/4 on Merge.
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This is a pretty good record! Good work, Mr. Oberst.
“Lenders in the Temple” really caught me off guard. I was just so ready to give up on him and he pulls out a song like that and yeah, pretty spot on evaluation of that there record.
Looks like you can listen to it now on Rhapsody
http://www.rhapsody.com/conoroberst/conoroberst
just so it’s correct. the baby dying in bathtub reference should be credited to “letting off the happiness”. get your facts straight!
also…this album is pretty boring i must say. i think part of what makes bright eyes good is excellent production and arrangements. this has nada. maybe it will grow on me. it ain’t lifted.
We were talking about the interview thing in “An Attempt to Tip the Scales.” You’re talking about “Padriac My Prince.” It’s a good day when we can both be right.
Bright Eyes production wasn’t all that grand till the last record. Lifted is a messy album.
Good record.
good review, but one thing that irks me… everyone who talks about this record mentions that it’s his first without the Bright Eyes name since his early home recordings. And they imply that this a return to those golden roots…. well the Water tape and other pre “A Collection of Songs” material is complete crap that sounds like it’s sung by a eight year old girl. So I wish people would stop referencing them as if they are profoundly important…. most reviewers have probably never bothered to hear them in the first place.
Alright record, but the music itself isn’t as interesting as Cassadaga; I know you don’t listen to Bright Eyes for the guitar solos, but I’ve really come to dig the Bright Eyes band and think this one is a bit of a step down
I’ve never been sure about Cassadaga, it was kinda weird.., but the songs I’ve heard from this one so far, they sound pretty cool to me!
and well the fact that he recorded it in Mexico makes it even better for me cuz I’ve been wanting to make a trip to the pyramids for a while now…
Lenders in the Temple is THE shit!!
this album totally rules
Does this sound anything like Cassadaga?
I want to know before I listen to it.
no it’s more stripped down sound
i’ve listened to it twice and i like it better than cassadega so far
cassadaga was a big let down for me. I;m glad that he’s trying to get away from the bland, but admittedly more sleek productions that plagued his last cd.
I personally love Cassadaga (Classic Cars you kiddin me?!) but I didn’t know what to expect after hearing Souled Out and Callahan but I was undoubtedly pumped. I just didn’t want those to be the two stand out tracks and I don’t think they are. This is my fave Oberst album since I’m Wide Awake. I can’t stop listening to this baby. :) lovely review btw!
I think this album has the feel of the first three electric Dylan albums. I’m not saying it sounds like it, but there is the same energy as the bands Dylan pieced together for Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61, and Blonde on Blonde.
I actually really like this album, but i hated cassadaga.
i wouldn’t necessarily say these songs are happy, but it feels like Conor is comfortable and content these days.
Good review. This record is really quite lovely.
Used to love Conor. Lifted is the only record of his i can still listen to all the way through. I’ve got a few choice picks from his other records but now I look back on how much Bright Eyes I used to listen to and wonder what was wrong with me.
well said…
“There’s nothing that the road cannot heal”
WTF…….that is retarded….the road can’t heal cancer, aids, homesicknes…etc…etc…
yeah lenders in the temple is a good song, but i dont want to die in the hospital is embarrassing. comparing oberst to dylan is, always has been, and always will be silly.
i thought “four winds” was one of his best songs by far, but cassadaga didn’t have much else to offer. this is a bit more consistent, but alas, i’m afraid that i’m wide awake was his peak.
I think “I’m Wide Awake” is brilliant and probably his best release overall. Conor was onto something great there, and I still think he has more records with qualities like that in him. That being said, “Cassadaga” was just an awful record, it sounded like a Marilyn Manson and Paul McCartney country collaboration.
Where “Cassadaga” was a failed experiment, “Conor Oberst” is just boring. It’s fine that people mature, but it doesn’t have to mean generic sounding, uninspired and cold material… Conor Oberst can write outstanding, introvert and personal songs, but when it comes to apocalyptical, political songs about religion and “the big issues”… he just falls flat.
The most that can be said for it is it’ll remind you of better songs by Wilco, Silver Jews, songs:ohia etc
i think get well cards is a stylistic homage to bob dylan did anybody notice that at all?
One bonus to the new album is that the first song on the album does not have an extraneous intro to it. Listening to kids read books for over a minute, a conversation in a car, or a phone conversation about Cassadaga were a bit much. The listener should not have to be subjected to such things and the track listings should reflect it.
Rather than song 1 being titled Clairaudients: Kill or be Killed there should be two songs listed:
1. Clairaudients (Extraneous Phone Conversation No One Wants to Hear)
2. Kill or be Killed
The new album is good enough. At least two excellent songs and several good ones. The quality of the 2005 releases has not been approached with his last two releases but three or four good songs a year is not that bad for a fan.
I wish he would go back to the songwriting style of “Lifted” & “I’m Wide Awake…” This one and Cassadaga have way too many abstract lyrics that sound like wannabe Dylan.
I’m a pretty big Conor Oberst fan, Bright Eyes is my favorite band, but this album and Cassadaga really let me down. The first Bright Eyes album I heard was I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning, and it doesn’t get much better than that. I then listened to his earlier stuff and was quite excited when Cassadaga came out and, as I said earlier, I was severely disappointed. He needs to take some time and write a good album again, he’s churning this stuff out too quick, that’s all.
i’ve only had one listen and all i can say is that its decent. Sounds far better than cassadaga (only liked two tracks.) Its nice that he makes a new album about every year but seriously his style has become slightly homogenous. it used to seem that the music was as important as the lyrics (remember bowl of oranges, loose leaves, among others) but now he has just settled himself into this painfully generic alt/folk/country jams that are used to carry his slowly declining lyrics. Conor is known for his introspection but sometimes i wish he could go a little deeper… His lyrics are becoming increasingly more universal, and that is clearly not what he’s good at. For an album that is all about leaving it seems like he shouldn’t be winding up in the same place.
only have listened briefly to a few tracks but i like what i hear, and the last album was great as well, i don’t think it’s fair to be so critical btw, it’s music take it or leave it, as for me i’m enjoying his maturing i’m a long time dylan fan and i find his veering towards folk/rock/country very cool his earlier stuff i can’t get into perhaps because i’m too old and not as emotional as i once was who knows but i really like the new stuff and can’t wait to see him with dylan and helm in saratoga springs ny