Well, here’s something to improve your mood on a dull Monday afternoon.

Conor Oberst’s post-punk band Desaparecidos reunited for a one-off concert over the weekend, Nebraska’s Concert for Equality.

In my opinion, it’s Oberst’s best work to date.

Some footage of two tracks, ‘Greater Omaha’ and ‘Hole In One’ have surfaced on youtube. Enjoy below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

These things, they carry their own doom with them don’t they? What I mean is, that by their very nature – the teeth-aching ‘Supergroup’ tag, the piecemeal recording process, the feeling, no matter how wrong, that this is a bit throwaway somehow – these kind of projects are going to be a bit of a mess. Or at least, no matter how coherent or how high the quality of the material, that’s how it’s going to be perceived. All that said they of course carry a certain amount of implied success with them, and for sure there is some great stuff on here. And, yes, some throwaway.

Conor Oberst, Jim James, M Ward (and by necessity, Mike Mogis) toured in 2004 – “An Evening with Bright Eyes, Jim James, and M. Ward,” no less – and made a pact to record an album, however long it may take. Monsters of Folk (that name, it must be a parody – that cover, that references The Travelling Wilburys and The Highwaymen, with its Hessian Rushmore is ample evidence of that) is the fruits of these extended labours. And how does it sound? Much as you’d expect, given the personnel – a rough cut of American roots rock, with the 3 main players contributing pretty much what you’d expect. To these ears though, Oberst and M Ward are treading water and have been for a good couple of years. It’s only Jim James who finds moments of transcendence.

The first of these is the opening track ‘Dear God (sincerely M.O.F.)’ which is a soaring, haunted soul track. It takes what James has been hinting at with the last couple of My Morning Jacket records and runs with it; and as such it’s a profoundly odd way to start what is essentially a country rock album – it both wrong foots you as a listener, and colours what follows with a bland brush. The plodding ‘Say Please’ is up next and is a decent enough track (with a fine solo from Mogis) – it just sounds a little dead after the vocal pyrotechnics of the preceding track. ‘Whole Lotta Losin’’ is similarly afflicted, and you imagine this is the kind of track M Ward breathes out in his sleep by now. ‘Temazcal’, is the first ostensibly ‘Oberst’ track on the album. I’ll be honest here – I pretty much parted company with Oberst post Lifted… to me it was a case of diminishing returns. Not so much that he was a one-trick pony, more that he’d exhausted that well of angst within (real or unreal it didn’t really matter to me). His maturity whether as Bright Eyes or the Mystic Valley Band was a little banal. Indeed, it’s not until James entrance into ‘Temazcal’ that it’s anything but pretty much Oberst-by-numbers.

And it’s a recurring theme: ‘Baby Boomer’ and ‘Slow Down Jo’ are more Ward cast-offs, ‘Man Named Truth’ is a charisma black hole, ‘Map of the World’ is another hollowed-out Oberst clone. Then, unexpectedly, the last quarter of the album is everything the Monsters of Folk could have been: it’s James-dominated for sure, but it’s loose, easy and affecting. ‘Losin Yo Head’ is a redneck party, ‘Magic Marker’, featuring some gorgeous 4-part harmonies, lopes along – lead by Mogis’ lovely slide playing. Ward’s ‘Sandman, the Brakeman and Me’ is a perfect vignette, a soft blown dustbowl of a song. The album closes with another piece of quiet wonder from James, his voice multi-tracked and soaring, ‘you’re only gonna hear what you want to hear – do you hear your master’s voice now?’

On the whole, I expect this will sell decently enough because of the people involved, and when it’s good, it is very good. However good it is in parts though, it does feel bunged together. But well, these things do carry their doom with them…

We reported on the rumours of this project nearly 12 months ago, but it seems as if it’s now full fact!

Monsters of Folk is the indie Travelling Wilbury’s, comprising Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and singer/songwriter M.Ward.

They’ll be releasing their first collaborative album on September 22nd. The self-titled effort was recorded in Malibu, CA and Omaha, NE, and produced by Mike Mogis.  Although these critically acclaimed artists have shared the stage before, this album marks their first recorded output as a band.

Track List in full:
1. Dear God (sincerely M.O.F.)
2. Say Please
3. Whole Lotta Losin’
4. Temazcal
5. The Right Place
6. Baby Boomer
7. Man Named Truth
8. Goodway
9. Ahead of the Curve
10. Slow Down Jo
11. Losin Yo Head
12. Magic Marker
13. Map Of The World
14. The Sandman, the Brakeman and Me
15. His Master’s Voice

I cannot WAIT to hear this…

Ever since his 2004 breakthrough album I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, Conor Oberst – once the enfant terrible of alt. country – has been getting more and more traditionally-minded. Its follow-up, 2006′s Cassadaga, was his most mature effort to date (and allegedly, his first album since kicking drugs); in spite of flashes of greatness, Oberst himself sounded spent and the album seemed to sprawl in all the wrong directions, with many of the sessions’ best songs (specifically the frantic ‘Cartoon Blues’) snuck out as b-sides. Shorn of Bright Eyes collaborator Mike Mogis’s glossy production, Oberst’s 2008 solo debut was an unexpected triumph; recorded in Mexico with a makeshift band, it remains arguably the least self-conscious album in his entire back catalogue, and its compact twelve-song tracklist had a sense of fun and excitement that was sorely missing from its Bright Eyes predecessor.

The result of nearly a solid year of touring, Outer South - which is credited to Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band (its booklet littered with pictures of the band in matching MVB jackets) – is likely to strike fear into the more iconoclastic of Oberst’s fans. Not only do other band members take up songwriting duties on half of the album’s sixteen songs, but vocals too, with one of the album’s better Oberst-penned moments, the reflective ‘Worldwide’, nervously sung by bassist Macey Taylor. Surprisingly, many of the contributions from the other band members actually hold together quite well, even if it’s hard to listen without comparing them to the band’s de facto leader. Guitarist Nik Freitas’s vocals may call to mind a more timid Oberst, but ‘Big Black Nothing’ may well be the best thing here – a darkly ramshackle country track complete with barrelhouse piano and the whole gang joining in on backing vocals. Meanwhile, Taylor Hollinghurst’s cute ‘Air Mattress’ resembles nothing more than early Fountains of Wayne, right down to its jaunty analog synth hook.

As for Conor’s cuts…well, perhaps his enthusiasm was spent on encouraging his bandmates, but they’re mostly disappointingly unmemorable. The campfire singalong ‘Ten Women’ is charming, and the strident shuffle of opener ‘Slowly (Oh So Slowly)’ is certainly sets the album’s breezy tone, but the lightness of touch that made Conor Oberst such a genuinely great record appears to be missing. His most striking track here is the ferociously riff-rocking ‘Roosevelt Room’; with shout-outs to Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson, it’s one of the few times that the Outer South‘s classic rock influences all come together – a self-proclaimed “tear gas riot song”, and the kind of enraged stream-of-consciousness diatribe (à la ‘Four Winds’) that will no doubt come even fewer and further between now that the right man’s in the White House.

The album’s collaborative spirit is a bold move for an artist so fêted for his independence; indeed, it’s telling that, rather than any lyric that would suggest Oberst’s new-found appreciation for the band dynamic, it’s a Walt Whitman line – heart-warmingly displayed on the album’s inner sleeve alongside a picture of those jackets - that sums the nature of the project up: “I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.” Sadly, although you can certainly appreciate the band’s enthusiasm for the project, when taking Outer South as a seventy-minute whole, it’s a different proposition altogether for the listener to try and match it.
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Conor Oberst on MySpace

With one critically acclaimed record under their belt and a highly anticipated sophomore album Outer South (May 4th on Wichita) on its way, Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band are set to release “One of My Kind” on April 15th, a documentary that will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the band’s journey over the past year and a half.

Made by the band’s guitar-tech Phil Schaffart and presented by Causecast.org, “One of My Kind” traces the group’s ever-growing bond as friends and collaborators. Footage from Tepoztlan, Mexico, where they recorded their first album, Conor Oberst, their worldwide tour in 2008, and the making of Outer South in El Paso, TX takes viewers on a 60-minute musical journey around the world. 

The film will be available as a free stream or HD download exclusively on Causecast.org, IFC.com, conoroberst.com, mergerecords.com, and wichita-recordings.com. Additionally, Causecast.org partner sites IFC.com, The Huffington Post and Myspace IMPACT will each feature exclusive outtakes, trailers and live acoustic performances from the film. 

Unlike any film release before, Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band are donating the documentary, “One Of My Kind” for FREE, in the hope that viewers will make a donation to one of the many nonprofits or causes on Causecast.

Trailer YouTube

Click here to view the embedded video.

A free download of the single ‘Nikorette’ is now available at www.conoroberst.com and www.wichita-recordings.com. Additionally, the new album Outer South can be pre-ordered from either site.

Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band will release a brand new album on May 4th on Wichita Recordings (UK/Europe).

The album, titled Outer South, was recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillio, outside El Paso, Texas in November/December last year and features the same group of musicians as were present on last year’s acclaimed Conor Oberst album.

Outer South is a 16-track album featuring songs written by Oberst, Jason Boesel, Nik Freitas, and Taylor Hollingsworth, some of which were part of the live show from late last year including ‘Nikorette’ which they performed on Late Night With Conan O’Brien in November which you can see here…

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Mystic Valley Band will play the Coachella Festival this spring.

Dark Was The Night is a fundraiser for the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS, comprising 31 exclusive tracks. Moreover, though, much like a previous Red Hot effort, 1993′s No Alternative (Nirvana, Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, Pavement, Jonathan Richman), it acts as a snapshot of a certain time and place in North American alternative music (Stuart Murdoch, Devastations, Riceboy Sleeps, Antony Hegarty and Jose Gonzalez company excepted). The record takes in a healthy cross-section of the major players in the scene over the last couple of years; a period of unbridled creativity and critical hosannahs shone upon the music that not so long ago would have been quietly left to fend for its own cult following on the underground. So how do you approach something like this, with no thematic link or stylistic even keel, just a hell of a lot of proven quality intended, as the producers Aaron and Bryce Dessner (of The National) have reinforced, merely as a showcase for “the best in independent music, with an emphasis on traditional themes played and arranged in a contemporary way” (whatever that means)? By throwing traditional review narrative form out of the window and tackling it sequentially, I guess.

So… Dirty Projectors kick off with a David Byrne collaboration that he may have written the words to but in recording doesn’t seem to include David Byrne on anything more than backing vocals, although ‘Knotty Pine’ seems to funnel the wired shuffle of Talking Heads’ first couple of albums to a more straightened out version of Dave Longstreth and co’s eclectic culture surfing. Nick Drake’s ‘Cello Song’ is given The Books’ elegant glitch-folk treatment with Jose Gonzalez on restrained vocals, drifting gorgeously on a digital looped bed. Feist and Ben Gibbard come together on a spare, chiming countrified version of ‘Train Song’ (made semi-famous by Vashti Bunyan) that sounds more like Nancy & Lee than either’s proper work. The development of Bon Iver from solo project to full band expansion while keeping that necessary intimacy continues on ‘Brackett, WI’, brittle guitar and heavenly harmonies this time joined by organ and prominent bass; it wouldn’t have been out of place on the Blood Bank EP. Folk standard ‘Deep Blue Sea’ originally appeared in home recorded lullaby version on Grizzly Bear’s Friend EP last year and reappears fleshed out and warmer, Dan Rossen’s vocals and fingerpicking augmented by woodwind, electronic distortion and percussion. If their forthcoming album takes after this it’ll be unstoppable.

The National themselves take the spotlight next, ‘So Far Around The Bend’ less outwardly emotive than usual in a sawing back porch strum with decorative woodwind frenzy and a song about a woman lost and alone through choice in New York, apparently “praying for Pavement to get back together”. Yeasayer do their expansive otherworldly rhythmic thing a lot better than usual on ‘Tightrope’, and it’s far easier to get excited about than another version of ‘Feeling Good’, especially as My Brightest Diamond adds little to the original arrangement. Title track honours are left to avant garde San Franciscan string section the Kronos Quartet, and once four minutes of plucked string bending has sufficiently tested your patience Antony appears with Bryce Dressner on backup for a fairly perfunctory, vocal pyrotechnic-free version of Dylan’s ‘I Was Young When I Left Home’. Justin Vernon returns with Aaron Dessner backing him up on ‘Big Red Machine’, which pitches Vernon’s multitracked falsetto against insistent piano hammering. It’s an odd juxtaposition but no less intriguing for that. Hard to tell if ‘Sleepless’ is much of a preview of the Decemberists’ rock opera direction, given the stately nearly eight minute rumination sounds like it could have been an offcut from Castaways And Cutouts. Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam gives himself sixty-seven seconds on ‘Stolen Houses (Die)’, which means he’s reduced to vocal and guitar and so can’t ruin it with the soft rock settings of late, while Grizzly Bear and Feist both reappear with a reworking of ‘Service Bell’, originally from the former’s Horn Of Plenty debut album, which with its percussion loops and doo-wop backing vocals actually sounds more like Rossen’s Department Of Eagles, before the first disc closes with something of a war of choral folk attrition, more than ten minutes of Sufjan Stevens. ‘You Are The Blood’ – another cover, apparently – throws a curveball of electronic bleeps for its first thirty seconds and continues in a pattern of underlying electronic effects, samples and and found sounds in the background in a way he hasn’t explored since 2002′s Enjoy Your Rabbit, over which gradually develops a pattern of sympathetic male-female harmonies, cinematic brass and galloping drums before breaking down into cutting up his own vocals and instruments, veering off into heavily reverbed George Harrison piano-led contemplation for a bit, then back to the laptop, then explodimng into joyful brass-led fanfare, then distorted guitar solo over glitches, then solo piano voluntary, then a bit of everything to close. Phew. There’s as many ideas in this one track as those that have followed Sufjan’s path have ever had, and whether one-off playful experiment or signpost as to where he goes whenever he next deigns to record an album – three and a half years since Illinois now – it’s a masterstroke.

Still with it? Good, on to CD 2, which at least initially is something of a disappointment. Even Arcade Fire’s ‘Lenin’ turns the bombast down but ends up sounding more like their pre-Funeral EP, reaching towards something distinct without quite making it. Chief offenders are Beirut, still in underwhelming French mode, and My Morning Jacket, who turn in a song that sounds almost exactly like a British 80s AOR hit that I frustratingly can’t place (helpful, I know). As with most things it takes Dave Sitek to turn things around, who gives the Troggs’ ‘With A Girl Like You’ the fuzzy, synth layered production treatment he’s recently given Telepathe, plus horns and Sitek’s vaguely threatening lower register. Never mind knocking out a cover, Buck 65 reworks a track that’s already been on this compilation, turning Sufjan’s epic into the queasy, gospel choir aided ‘Blood Pt 2′, while the New Pornographers look inside themselves and knock off a version of their own Dan Bejar’s Destroyer’s ‘Hey Snow White’ that allows them to really indulge their AM radio rock fantasies and Yo La Tengo are in one of their relatively subdued Velvets moods on ‘Gentle Hour’. It says here Stuart Murdoch’s ‘Another Saturday’ is to the tune of traditional Scottish folk song ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’; whatever, it’s the type of ruminative, personal acoustic lament Murdoch hasn’t recorded in some time, and with references to his church background.

Riceboy Sleeps will be a new name to most but lead member Jónsi Birgisson of Sigur Ros won’t be, the eight and a half minutes of slowly shifting and drifting ambient waves almost daring the listener to use those ‘glacial’/'pastoral’ descriptions that have long since been deemed passe when describing Birgisson’s main project. An alt-countrified run starts with Cat Power’s interpretation of ‘Amazing Grace’ which is – shock! – Memphis bluesy and continues with Andrew Bird taking the warmer approach of his current album on as he grants the Handsome Family’s ‘The Giant of Illinois’ lush orchestration alongside his own multi-layered violin plucking and sawing and shimmering guitar, before Conor Oberst scratches a bluegrass country itch duetting with Gillian Welch on a reworked ‘Lua’. It suits him. Blonde Redhead are also in stripped back mode collaborating with shimmering Melbourne outfit Devastations, a laid back, comely Kazu Makino sounding oddly like Black Box Recorder’s Sarah Nixey against distorted piano, and it’s left to Kevin Drew to bring the whole charabanc home with the yearning slowcore of the Low-esque (if not Low-esque titled) ‘Love Vs Porn’.

So no, it doesn’t all work, and even by the nature of “previously unreleased tracks” for something promoting the fresh pickings of the very best available there’s quite a few reworkings and covers. However, despite the first CD being clearly the stronger, the hits clearly outweigh the misses, showing a new possible direction for some (Oberst, Sufjan), bringing the best out of others (Yeasayer, The Books) and doing what it should do, reasserting the claims of some of its most lauded (Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, The National, The Decemberists). This is where – oh, let’s say it – hipster music largely stands in early 2009, and we’re all the better for it.
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Dark Was The Night

As previously reported here, the new 4AD compilation Dark Was The Night will be released next month and comprises of 31 exclusive tracks curated by The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner and the AIDS charity Red Hot.

‘Knotty Pine’ by The Dirty Projectors and David Byrne is just one of the many, many highlights on this fabulous set and has just been made available as a free download.

Also, as of yesterday, 4AD began a track-by-track premiere of the record. From January 15 through February 15, each track, in order will be streamed for one day only at www.myspace.com/DarkWasTheNight as well as on the relevant band’s MySpace page.

Tracks to look out for are Antony Hegarty’s stirring take on the early Dylan classic ‘I Was Young When I Left Home’, ‘Cello Song’ by The Books and Jose Gonzalez, ‘Deep Blue Sea’ from Grizzly Bear and a cover of Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’ by My Brightest Diamond – which really shouldn’t work but does in a quite fantastic way. Oh, and there is a stunning reworking of Bright Eyes’ ‘Lua’ where Coner Oberst is joined by Gillian Welch on vocals. Basically, there isn’t a duff track over the whole 2 discs.  Definitely an essential purchase for 2009 and for a great charity  to boot. Pre-order here.

Tracklist in full:

‘THIS DISC’

1. “Knotty Pine” – Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
2. “Cello Song” – The Books featuring Joses Gonzalez
3. “Train Song” – Feist and Ben Gibbard
4. “Brackett, WI” – Bon Iver
5. “Deep Blue Sea” – Grizzly Bear
6. “So Far Around The Bend” – The National
7. “Tightrope” – Yeasayer
8. “Feeling Good” – My Brightest Diamond
9. “Dark Was The Night” – Kronos Quartet
10. “I Was Young When I Left Home” – Antony with Bryce Dessner
11. “Big Red Machine” – Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12. “Sleepless” – The Decemberists
13. “Die” – Iron & Wine
14. “Service Bell” – Grizzly Bear + Feist
15. “You Are The Blood” – Sufjan Stevens

‘THAT DISC’

1. “Well-Alright” – Spoon
2. “Lenin” – Arcade Fire
3. “Mimizan” – Beirut
4. “El Caporal” – My Morning Jacket
5. “Inspiration Information” – Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
6. “With A Girl Like You” – Dave Sitek
7. “Blood Pt. 2″ – Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8. “Hey, Snow White” – The New Pornographers
9. “Gentle Hour” – Yo La Tengo
10. “Amazing Grace” – Cat Power
11. “Happiness” – Riceboy Sleeps
12. “Another Saturday” – Stuart Murdoch
13. “The Giant Of Illinois” – Andrew Bird
14. “Lua” – Conor Oberst with Gillian Welch
15. “When The Road Runs Out” – Blonde Redhead & Devastations
16. “Love Vs. Porn” – Kevin Drew

mp3:> The Dirty Projectors and David Byrne: ‘Knotty Pine’

Bon Iver

We’ve known about this for a few weeks now but for some reason haven’t posted anything about it… *slapped wrists etc* 4AD Records and AIDS charity Red Hot have joined forces with Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National to produce a whopping 32 track album of original material from all your favourite indie superstars. Yup, you’ve guessed it – Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Beach House, The Decemberists and of course The National all feature. It is certainly set to be one of the must have records of 2009.

Some info from the label below, plus the complete lineup.. Tracklisting so far, hasn’t been revealed.

Dark Was The Night we can confirm will be released on February 16th (Worldwide) and 17th (North America) 2009. Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National produced the album, with John Carlin (founder of the Red Hot Organization) its executive producer. A total of thirty-two exclusive tracks have been recorded for the compilation, which will be available as a double cd, triple vinyl and download album, with profits benefitting the Red Hot Organization – an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS.

Red Hot was founded on the premise that even without a cure, AIDS remains a preventable disease – using music as a great vehicle to raise both money and awareness for it. This is also the twentieth year of Red Hot as well as their twentieth compilation.

The complete list of artists (in alphabetical order) that recorded tracks for this release are:
Andrew Bird
Antony + Bryce Dessner
Arcade Fire
Beach House
Beirut
Blonde Redhead + Devastations
Bon Iver
Bon Iver & Aaron Dessner
The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
The Decemberists
Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
Kevin Drew
Feist + Ben Gibbard
Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear + Feist
Iron & Wine
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Kronos Quartet
Stuart Murdoch
My Brightest Diamond
My Morning Jacket
The National
The New Pornographers
Conor Oberst & Gillian Welch
Riceboy Sleeps
Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio)
Spoon
Sufjan Stevens
Yeasayer
Yo La Tengo

Pretty awesome huh? I’m particualry looking forward to the Ben Gibbard and Feist collaboration.. More news as and when we get it.

Photographs by Rachel Lipsitz | www.littlepants.com

“Sorry if we all look sick,” Oberst laconically intones early on in the set he and his Mystic Valley Band gleefully hammer out this evening; “we all are sick”. Not one to let this stop him knocking back vodka mixers or throwing himself into a long old set list with abandon, tonight sees his recent self-titled effort fleshed-out, bulked-up and frankly sounding better than ever – an instinctive understanding the band must have stumbled upon down Mexico-way bolstered by months spent touring their wares.

For while the album may be eponymous, tonight’s show is tellingly billed a full band affair – although carried by and resting predominantly on Oberst’s shoulders, the band all notably chime in. Singer-songwriter Nik Freitas (who resides on Oberst’s Team Love label) and Jason Boesel (long-standing Bright Eyes and Rilo Kiley sticksman) both lead songs to fine effect – Freitas even joshing good-naturedly with the crowd as they roll through a number and a half sans Oberst later on. As good as they are though, the finest moments abound when said troubadour is present – whether tumbling from the drum-kit, caterwauling about the place or overcoming his ailments to deliver ragged, impassioned cuts such as ‘Lenders In The Temple’ or a fine ‘Milk Thistle’ (which surely ranks way up there among his emotive best), his is an oddly magnetic presence; and in some of the newer material aired tonight – or the covers even, as we’re served a wonderfully volatile take on ‘Corrine, Corrina’ (!) – there’s a sense of the unpredictable, screaming wordslinger of old lurching through.

Worthy of consideration at this juncture is whether, not long after an album recorded low-scale and in relaxed surroundings, Oberst has anything significant up his sleeve come future projects; bearing in mind this album is a direct reaction against the grand styling of Cassadaga, where he’ll find himself next is certainly due contemplation. Though a new Desaparecidos album might be setting hopes a little too high, hoping for a reclaiming of the edge that so strongly informed works such as his seminal Lifted wouldn’t be wholly untoward.

No matter: tonight, as on the album, sees him indulging and enjoying himself, something difficult to bemoan. No Bright Eyes songs rear their heads (and, from where I’m stood there aren’t any pleading cries for any either), and to these ears – who have lived with the self-titled for some time now – the stature this latest clutch gain in a live scenario is disarming. Weaker moments from the record sound fine indeed (see ‘Get-Well-Cards’), stronger ones positively buoyant – the infectious march of ‘NYC – Gone, Gone’ brings about audience-wide clapping while ‘Souled Out!!!’ makes its entrance on a perfectly judged drum roll – noisier, looser than on record and all the better for it.

And so while it’s a different (less overtly personal or boisterous) performance to the kind Oberst has played in the past – it’s a very, very good one nonetheless. Granted, ‘Everybody’s Talkin” is perhaps a push too far, but given the quality of all that preceded and lies subsequent it’s easily forgivable. A memorable non-album song closes the set entitled ‘Breezy’: finding our man tinkling ivories, “kissing…full of beer, tequila, weed and candy,” and climaxing with the repeated cry “I love you now – and that’s all that matters,” it’s as sweet and remarkable as anything in his oeuvre. “Conor you fucking LEGEND” yelled one audience member earlier this evening – a sentiment thunderous applause, this writer and a none-more-crowded merch-stall echo emphatically.

Now 28, Conor Oberst famously began his recording career at the age of 13. Since those early years, his solo career has taken something of a back seat, with most of his material coming as part of various bands, mostly Bright Eyes, whose last release was the well-received Cassadaga from last year. Taking a break from that band, Oberst travelled down to Mexico and through January and February of this year, recorded this self-titled album of folky country rock. The act of leaving the US and going to Mexico is directly referenced here in “NYC-Gone, Gone”, but forms part of a wider, recurring theme of starting again. “Sausalito”, for example, talks about making a change to living on a houseboat – and on “Moab”, Oberst asserts that “there’s nothing that the road cannot heal”. Specifically, the album was recorded with the so-called “Mystic Valley Band” in the town of Tepoztlán, believed by the Aztecs to have been the birthplace of the deathly feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl. The story goes that when a European explorer unearthed a statue of said god, he found it so horrific that he promptly reburied it – I think we can be sure that history will be kinder to this album, which as it turns out is pretty good.

Opener “Cape Canaveral” is possibly the album’s strongest track and has its own theme of nostalgia – it looks back to the space missions launched from the titular site, amongst other things. It has a wonderfully bittersweet lilt to it, and forms a great opener to this varied album which refuses to settle entirely into a specific musical style. Even though it’s only a touch over four minutes long, “Cape Canaveral” sounds quite epic, like a picturesque, nostalgic document. Oberst’s voice carries the song, over quite a subtle guitar arrangement, supported by little more than a quiet stamping and one or two momentary expeditions into radio static.

At the other end of the spectrum are songs like the aforementioned “NYC-Gone, Gone” which starts out like a football chant and ends like a thrilling slice of anthemic hard rock – as one of the album’s shortest tracks, you almost wish it was longer and more fleshed out, with a reprise of the excellently heavy ending, but it stands well alone as a brief moment in the wider scene of the album. The whole thing rides on a simple but fun cyclic electric guitar riff, and is over almost as soon as it begins. Compare this to the album’s other tiny track though, “Valle Mystico (Ruben’s Song)” – which just seems like a completely pointless excursion into self-indulgence which only serves to break up the album’s flow.

Elsewhere is the frenetic “I Don’t Want To Die (In A Hospital)” which does pretty much what it says on the tin narratively, but is noteworthy for its jumpy interplay between piano and guitar, and well as Oberst’s amusing and increasingly frantic and desperate vocal delivery. “Lenders in the Temple” is disappointingly dissimilar to Prince’s 1990 hit “Thieves in the Temple” but is a good song nevertheless – atmospheric, haunting and effective. There are some oddly cryptic lyrics, too – “that circus tiger’s gonna break your heart”, and “there’s pink flamingos living in the mall”.

This album never sticks with one theme, style or tempo for long, which can be a bit jarring. It also doesn’t quite maintain a high standard all the way through – “Milk Thistle” is a fairly cryptic closing song about death, but like some of the other more down-tempo songs it doesn’t quite have the appeal of the album’s first half. Nevertheless, Conor Oberst is a solid album and marks an impressive return after several years for Oberst’s solo career.
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Conor Oberst on MySpace

Well, that’s one way to fight the leak…

Conor Oberst is streaming, in full, his new solo album (with the Mystic Valley Band) over at conoroberst.com.

Put it this way, it can’t be as bad as Cassadaga…