Conor Oberst, the troubled soul who gave us Bright Eyes, has once again returned from the bottom of his whiskey bottle with a new producer and an eclectic country branded group of friends - The Mystic Valley Band.
Followers of Bright Eyes will know that Mr Oberst is capable of churning out songs without even barely thinking. His current library boasts countless minimal country tales, duet ballads of lyrical perfection and depressive monologues depicting the mindset of a weary love seeking soul, and now, without fail, Oberst has produced yet another album of top-notch quality with high calibre song writing.
Throughout the record there are sprinklings of his pessimistic and unhealthily depressive ethos. “I don’t want to die (in the hospital)” is rife with such ill penned vocals of the cold grasp of death in an even colder and artificially crafted environment. But such songs can appear misleading. The upbeat tempo of this urban-country ballad is a smiley cover-up for the suicidal and seemingly cathartic ramblings of a tortured individual who is scared of death and even more scared of dying under the watchful eye of doctors and nurses.
“NYC -Gone, Gone” is a short, sharp shot of distortion with a foot stomping tempo, while “Milk Thistle” switches up the melody into a pool of chord plucking warmth which hugs you like a past Bright Eyes anthem. Graceful like an urban Townes Van Zandt and ruthless like the dispirited fables of Leonard Cohen, Oberst exasperates his range in music making to an untouchable potential that stretches from an ear to ear grin to the deleterious scriptures of a manic depressive.
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