MOG

‘Conor Oberst’ is not, as some would have you believe (I’m looking at you, Metro newspaper) the debut solo album from, well, Conor Oberst. It’s the fourth one, and that’s not even counting the work he’s done with Bright Eyes, Commander Venus, Desaparacidos and Park Avenue (of which I count a combined fourteen albums, but feel free to correct me in the comments). It seems, in fact, that the number one thing that ‘Conor Oberst’ wants you to know about Conor Oberst (see the difference?) is that he’s prolific. Conor Oberst has been around the block, and knows what’s going on. Or does he?

‘Conor Oberst’ was recorded over January and February 2008 in Tepozltán, Mexico by Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band (which was initially reported to include Oberst’s old friend M. Ward). At first listen, it’s almost a straight up sequel to last year’s Bright Eyes album, ‘Cassadaga’ – though in this case rather than a straightforward embrace of the spiritualism and mysticism embodied by ‘Cassadaga’s eponymous community, Oberst is torn.  The songs are speckled with Springsteenian travel imagery of old muscle cars in small seaside towns ("Hey, hey, hey mother interstate/Can you deliver me from evil?" on opener ‘Cape Canaveral; "smell the leather of your new car/ drive through the desert after night fall" on ‘Sausalito’ and "Now they drive the cars up and down the beach/It's ridiculous and everybody knows/Hear the Mustangs rev at the four way stop/You get ghosted when the light says go" on ‘Get Well Cards’) are sung with warring affection and bitterness in Oberst’s voice.

Fittingly, for a solo album, ‘Conor Oberst’ is more personal than previous Bright Eyes albums. There’s less of the biting social commentary or political motivations that Bright Eyes became known for in the wake of ‘I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning’ – although during the recording, Oberst played shows in support of Barack Obama – and the album becomes, like ‘Cassadaga’, more about individual journeys than popular ones. He doesn’t want to save your soul, just his own.

In some cases, like with the Bruce-style lyrics above, the journeys are literal. ‘Moab’ proclaims that "there’s nothing that the road cannot heal"; ‘Eagle on a Pole’, ‘Sausalito’ and ‘Valle Místico’ seem to imply that Conor and Co. went to Mexico to get away from it all be healed – like it was as much a pilgrimage as a recording excursion. (The latter song, by the way, is 49 seconds of insects and what sounds like a shepherd’s horn.)

The distinctive adolescent crack of Oberst’s voice that once again make this album (like with Bright Eyes before this) stand out from the rest of the folky, alt-country crowd. "Stop reading the weather charts/Stop counting the playing cards/There's no system, there's no guarantee/ That the love you feel and carry inside can be passed" he tells (or is told by?) a terminally ill child on ‘Danny Callahan’, and he genuinely sounds like he’s going to cry. This isn’t always a good thing – Oberst’s voice, for it’s emotive weight and distinctive breaks can come across as petulant and whiny after a while. But get past that and it’s where the album shines – it’s not about seeing the big picture or saving the world – it’s just a guy, who wants to redeem himself and doesn’t know how.

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Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band will be playing a bunch of festivals over the next three months, including Reading and Leeds in England, Electric Picnic here in Ireland, Connect in Scotland, Austin City Limits in the US and Great Escape in Sydney Australia. You can stream ‘Danny Callahan’ by going to Michael Goldberg’s MOG page, here.

As always, here's the track listing:

1. "Cape Canaveral"
2. "Sausalito"
3. "Get-Well-Cards"
4. "Lenders in the Temple"
5. "Danny Callahan"
6. "I Don’t Want to Die (In the Hospital)"
7. "Eagle on a Pole"
8. "NYC - Gone, Gone"
9. "Moab"
10. "Valle Místico (Ruben’s Song)"
11. "Souled Out!!!"
12. "Milk Thistle"