Album Review - Conor Oberst "Conor Oberst"

Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes breaks off for a self-titled solo album. I haven't listened to this one yet but based on pitchfork's review with a semi-generous 7.3, I think I just might... I'm sure the album continues with Oberst's insightful, brilliant and smart writing styles.

"Sausalito" is a rollicking daydream about camping out on a houseboat in California; "NYC - Gone, Gone" is a stomping, distorted burst about leaving New York for Mexico. "Gone, gone from New York City,/ where you gonna go with a head that empty?" Oberst demands. "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.