The Last Word: Conor Oberst May Be Cracking A Smile

the last word

Conor Oberst May Be Cracking A Smile

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. This time out, we're taking a look at writeups for Bright Eyes mastermind Conor Oberst's solo album, which hits stores tomorrow.

• "'Help me go slow, I've been carrying on,' he sings, and all the hype and expectations and ancillary rubbish recede, leaving only the sound of an earnest singer and songwriter fully coming into his own." [Hartford Courant]

• "'Milk Thistle,' which closes the album, is a grim acoustic song about dying (Oberst never mentions alcohol explicitly, but milk thistle, a purported hangover cure, is often employed, holistically, to treat liver disease—so it doesn't seem unreasonable to read 'Milk Thistle' as a song about suicide-via-whiskey). 'Milk thistle, milk thistle, let me down slow,' he trembles. 'If I go to heaven I'll be bored as hell.' It feels like a fitting, if morbid, way to end a record about escaping life—about escaping everything." [Pitchfork]

• "Perhaps the best of Conor Oberst, though, is the rich, Ramones-meet-Replacements tale about engineering a hospital escape in 'I Don't Want to Die (In a Hospital).' It's an amusing, rebellious take on a sad situation that shows off another welcome development for Oberst—a sense of humor." [Newsday]

4:00 PM on Mon Aug 4 2008
By Maura Johnston
782 views
9 comments

Comments

by Tauwan at 04:56 PM on 08/04/08
Reply by Email

*

This album is lovely.
by Tauwan at 05:01 PM on 08/04/08
Reply by Email

*

Also, someone you should count how many times the phrase "new Dylan" pops up when reading an article on/review of this album. I hadn't seen this term in a minute and next thing you know BAM can't escape it. Surprised I didn't see it here. Ryan Adams must be pissed.
by RaptorAvatar at 07:10 PM on 08/04/08
Reply by Email

*

This one has me conflicted. It seems like the older I get the less he has to say to me. Him at 18-22 had a lot to say to me at 17-18. Now, not so much.
by revmatty at 08:59 PM on 08/04/08
Reply by Email

*

I've a number of friends who consider him to be the greatest singer/songwriter of the last 50 years. I don't get the appeal, myself.
by Bazooka Tooth at 10:00 AM on 08/05/08
Reply by Email

*

@RaptorAvatar: I am so with you. 'Fevers and Mirrors' and 'Lifted' and the Desperaciados albums are some of my favorites of all time. 'Cassadaga' and this one? Not so much-- BORING.
by Bob Loblaw at 01:13 PM on 08/05/08
Reply by Email

*

@Bazooka Tooth: I'd give Cassadaga another go, if I were you. "Brakeman" has slowly become one of my favorite songs of his, right up there with "At the Bottom of Everything."

Also: YOU ARE AQUEMINI! Don't change a good / cranky thing!
by Tauwan at 02:04 PM on 08/05/08
Reply by Email

*

@Bob Loblaw:

If the Brakeman turns my way. Damn man. Whenever I return to Cassadaga, I press play on this track first. So good man. So good.

The 1,2,3 punch of Kill or Be Killed, Four Winds, and then this song must be highlighted as well. Though the first minute or so of Kill or Be Killed may be too Bright Eyes/"pretentious" for some people. [Hell the title alone may be too much for some people.]
by Bob Loblaw at 03:36 PM on 08/05/08
Reply by Email

*

@Tauwan: You mean there's an actual song hidden within "Kill or Be Killed?" I've never made it that far.
by Tauwan at 05:54 PM on 08/05/08
Reply by Email

*

@Bob Loblaw:

My point exactly.

But seriously, there's a good song underneath it all. You just got to sit through two minutes of "musical rubble" to get to it. It's sort of like that whole cacophony of sound thing people talked about over on that Grizzly Bear/Knife post.