Conor Oberst / Bright Eyes (rolling thread)

Ruminations just did not need messing with.

Nope, it didn’t. So far none of the Salutations versions hold their own against the Ruminations originals.

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Prob my fave song off ruminations, prefer that version tbh. Bright eyes/conor videos are always awful, arent they?

Is that Lockett from Deerhunter in the video at 1:46?

That’s a pretty good spot if it is! Can’t seem to find any confirmation of this though…

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streamin’

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Half way through my first listen of this and I’ve really liking it. The newer songs sound good and I’m enjoying the full versions of the others, the backing vocals on Barbary Coast as really nice.

Gets a very good write up here

Enjoyed this much more than I was expecting to. More full band as in bright eyes rather than mystic valley band which was my fear. Just good songs

That’s really good. Chanelling a bit of an early bright eyes vibe and prob darker than even anything on ruminations.

That line is a bit jarring, I take it more as a Cursive style ‘who’s Tim’s latest whore’, repeating someone else’s words back and not in a ‘bitches ain’t shit’ way.

Talking of classic Conor, this is a great song I recently discovered. Got that drunken regret/romantic squalor thing he does so well.

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Listened to this song to death when I was about 15

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Great song. Wasn’t that album the reason that Postal Service happened?

Close, it was an earlier dntel album that had Ben gibbard singing on one of the songs that led to the postal service. This came after. It’s a good album though.

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Interesting recent interview here (if you can ignore the obnoxious interviewer)

Not actually as recent as I thought.

Another new song he played live here:

Plus a good article:

Have a slightly complicated relationship with CO considering I was obsessed with him when I was a teenager and now it’s like dealing with an ex-gf I still fancy a bit, nice to see but just reminds me of the intensity of my passion in years gone by. Anyway, finally got around to listening to Ruminations recently and I really like it. I’d say it’s his best post-Bright Eyes record, really good songs on there and doesn’t overdo the good ol’ boy county folk thing that I can’t really stand about a lot of his solo stuff. It also got me listening to Fevers for the first time in years, really interesting listening with fresh ears. I guess in my mind I always think of him as primarily acoustic based and folky but Fevers was quite rocking in places and has some really unusual production/instrumentation, it’s a very unique sounding album.

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Yeah, I suppose I understand his reasons for moving on and doing something different and attempting to mature. Ultimately though I think he peaked as a young artist who wonderfully captured teen angst.

I was reading the PF review of Fevers and the guy makes an excellent point:

‘Depending on my mood, I prefer the monomaniacal scale of Lifted or the electro-goth narcosis of Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, and I get what others see in I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, a record I find to be highly overrated on account of its playing by someone else’s rules for once-- it was there where Oberst really attempted to be the “next Dylan” or “next Gram Parsons” rather than the only Conor Oberst. Which is exactly what we got on Fevers and Mirrors, a record steeped in roots, yet wholly of the moment, intelligent but prone to indefensible emotion, a very personal work made amongst talented friends.’

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maybe the only person I’ve heard agree with me that Wide Awake is far and away his most overrated album. I literally never listen to it.

I remember hearing most of the songs - Lua, First Day, Poison Oak - a couple of years before the album came out. It was at the time when a shitty internet download was so exciting and even though it sounded like a fucking buzzsaw was being operated in the same room as the singer I must have listened to those songs a thousand times before they were released officially. When Wide Awake finally arrived I have to admit I was slightly disappointed. Wide Awake was a record aimed at putting him into the mainstream consciousness, everything was fine tuned and clean and readymade for a mass audience. It worked to some extent I guess, it’s probably great, but it’s never been one I could fairly judge given how I approached it. I think the guy totally nails it there by saying it was a record made by other rules, it’s a decent alt-folk record and Conor has turned himself into a decent singer in that vein, but he’s never really going to be up there with Neil Young, Van Morrison etc imo, his voice just isn’t strong enough for one and he left behind what made him unique.