Conor Oberst & Phoebe Bridgers Release Surprise Album As Better Oblivion Community Center
It’s true: Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers have a new band together called Better Oblivion Community Center. They’re performing tonight on Colbert, and their self-titled album is out now.
The two indie folk-rockers have been in each other’s orbit for a while now, performing shows together and guesting on each other’s tracks. And now they’ve combined on a full-length collaboration, 10 songs that demonstrate how well they complement each other’s respective talents. Between this and Boygenius, her spectacular trio with Julian Baker and Lucy Dacus, Bridgers is becoming the queen of supergroups.
Oberst recently released two great new solo songs. The former Bright Eyes leader’s most recent albums were 2016 and 2017’s companion pieces Ruminations and Salutations. Bridgers, meanwhile, has been busy promoting the Boygenius EP lately and producing an album for Jenny Lewis sideman Christian Lee Hutson; it’s hard to believe given what a central figure she’s become in indie music, but she’s still only one solo album into her discography, 2017’s Stranger In The Alps. We recently interviewed her about 2018, the year that was.
Anyway, yes, Better Oblivion Community Center — this is a real band that exists with a 10-song album to prove it. Stream the whole thing below.
Better Oblivion Community Center is out now on Dead Oceans.