Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst

Fourth solo LP from “Rolling Stone’s songwriter of the year” There’s a definite truth in the assertion that Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, a man who simultaneously held the top two positions in the US singles charts in 2004, makes better music when he’s not trying, not straining at the political, the Dylan and the downright downtrodden Yankee. Damn, when he’s just being himself.

Moments such as that litter this solo work. Opener Cape Canaveral slides in, hushed and conspiratorially, while closer Milk Thistle might contain some of Oberst’s most stunning lyrical imagery yet (“In heaven I’d be bored as hell/Like a little baby at the bottom of a well”). But, in between, this prodigious talent seems to have learnt that whining isn’t necessarily the best medium for his not insignificant message. Lenders In The Temple seethes with repressed anger, and the thought of it bursting from its seams is enough to thrillingly carry the song, despite the fact that (or perhaps because) it never does.

Oberst is learning on the job, then. The widescreen, wide-brimmed Americana of the last Bright Eyes offering, Cassadaga, has been reigned in, but traces remain. Dare we say it, but this is an artist at the top of his game.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Wichita | tbc

Reviewed by Jake Kennedy
<< Back to Issue 353

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