Album: Monsters of Folk

It's with a heavy heart I sit down to listen to this. I don't care if they're a 'supergroup', I only want to hear Conor sing. Plus, supergroups are ALWAYS rubbish. And I hate M. Ward. And Mike Mogis. Still, I'm clinging on for a crumb.
The first song sounds like a boring Death Cab song. It's sort of electronicy but not quite. I didn't like the mixture of voices. Conor pops up in the second verse.
The second song Say Please is just some country twaddle. As is the third song.
Temazcal starts promisingly (ie. Conor's singing alone). Then it goes a bit like a hymn. Then plods along a bit.
I had to skip The Right Place after about 10 seconds; too country. Baby Boomer; also rubbish. It reminds me of the ones where he lets the others sing on his 'solo' album.
Don't know how Man Named Truth snuck on here; that song has been doing the live rounds for a while now. Ooh just Conor singing; hurrah! And his voice sounds a bit shaky and trembly. Good.
Enjoy this one, cos it's as good as it gets. But it still only sounds as good as his solo stuff, it's not a patch on Bright Eyes.
I can't STAND that country guitar noise on Goodway, it makes me want to throw up.
Ooh hold on, Ahead of the Curve is quite nice. It's minor-country but Conors voice sounds good on it, and he does all of the singing.
Slow Down Joe sounds like a Christmas song. Losing Yo Head is quite catchy but not Conor-heavy.
Magic Marker is dreary. Map of the World is Conor-led vocally, and reminds me of a cut-price Lenders in the Temple.
Sandman, the Brakeman and Me- noooo. The last song is rubbish too. Glad I didn't buy this!
It's not just Conor's tunes that have gone down the toilet; it's his lyrics too. And I'm sad about the death of Bright Eyes, and I'm sad about Bright Eyes on the blinking Halifax advert. It's like watching an ex-boyfriend deny your existence.
In the News of the World yesterday Ian Hyland said Holly Willoughby should be off to LA, not sitting on the sofa ten years too soon with Pippy Schofield. Well, that's how I feel about Conor. He has the youth on his side to be Prince or David Bowie. It seems he just wants to be Kenny fucking Rogers.

Album Review: Outer South- Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band

So here I am with Conor's new CD in my hand, yes, I still buy his stuff, because, y'know, it's him. The sleeve is nice, shiny and colourful with lots of posey pictures of them all looking a bit awkward. There's 16 songs on this album, so that's value for money, at least (but how many is he doing the lead vocal on?). The Daily Mail said Conor was in danger of producing 'quantity over quality'. But he's always been prolific. I listened to his last (almost) solo offering in this flat too, so it wasn't so long ago. But I'd rather prolific and a bit shoddy than retired.
Slowly (Oh so Slowly) reminds me of Gentleman's Pact. To All The Lights in The Windows sounds like a soft rock song, like Conor is trying to be Bruce Springsteen, but there are flashes of good stuff. His voice sounds kind of raw and live on it, a bit under produced, which is nice.
The third song has a crossed out title; cute. From the lyrics, I suspect it's really called 'big black nothing'. Uh-oh, it's one of the others singing. I was afraid of this. Actually, it aint too bad.
Air Mattress also has another one singing, but his voice is kind of nasally (and not in a good way) and the song is a bit cliche. It makes me pine for Conor's vocals. Oh god, that guitar solo is unnecessary.
Cabbage Town is pretty good, probably the most Bright-Eyesey yet. I quite fancy going to Cabbage Town. Again, Conor's voice sounds good, a little bit ripped up and echoey. Definitely less studio-fied than on the last solo album.
Ten Women is quite nice, it has a gentle tone to it, and is probably the least country. Difference is Time is good too, even though it's another lead vocal from someone else, his voice is quite nice (although he sounds a little drunk). It's got a kind of Neva Dinova feel too it.
I thought Nikorette was a bit tedious, wasn't that meant to be the single? They always do a duff single! It's just TOO country, that guitar makes me want to puke.
White Shoes (with just Conor singing with a guitar) reminds me of Lime Tree (with a bit of Lenders in the Temple). It's kind of atmospheric but tuneless, like it could be beautiful but doesn't quite find it's feet. It's lyrically gibberish, which I'm sure means something to Conor, but not very much to the listener. The echo on his voice is cool. This will either really grown on me, or just end up leaving me cold.
Bloodline sees one of the others singing. It's OK but goes nowhere; it's country nothingness. Spoiled is quite good, it has a nice pace to it and the lyrics are sweet. It's a bit poppy. Worldwide feels like more interchangeable country; it feels like it should be Conor singing it.
Roosevelt room goes glam rock, which is a bit weird at this point, but at least Conor is shouting a bit, and he sounds angry. I've heard this before live. I absolutely HATE that 70s guitar sound, but at the same time it's good to hear something a bit different, which doesn't say much for the album. This song is too derivative, but the whole album is. It feels like a waste of Conor's genius.
Eagle on a Pole is not as good as Eagle on a Pole which is on the 1st album. Getting sleepy now.
I Got The Reason #2... wasn't this on the last album? When you're doing two songs with the same name and songs with the same name, but version 1 & 2, maybe you are too prolific. I do really like this song, but I know it quite well, anyway. The version I have is quite understated and quiet, but this version is good too, at least he's loud on it. It's probably the best song on the album.
Snake Hill is an awful ending to the album; it's the mega nasally one again. B-side!
Anyway, I've heard this is a grower, so all comments are pretty much null and void until a couple of weeks time. But it felt like a slog. Conor is such a talent; why does he insist on selling himself so short? And with himself, us.

Conor Documentary: One of a Kind- The Story of the Mystic Valley Band

I'll never forget my crushing sense of disappointment when I bought the Evening with Saddle Creek DVD; how can a DVD with The Faint, Cursive, Rilo Kiley and Bright Eyes on be so bloody boring? But it was. Too much dull waffle. It's weird when one of your biggest idols is actually not that charismatic; yet his music says everything.
I'm not the biggest champion of Conor and his Mystic Valley Band (come on, have you ever met anyone who is?) but I would die for the merest sprinkle of Bright Eyes stardust.
So I sat down to watch this documentary with trepidation. But hey, this documentary is free, so it would be churlish to complain anyway. Still, I'm sure it won't stop me.
I don't hate the Conor solo album, I think Eagle on a Pole, Lenders in the Temple and Milk Thistle are beautiful (oh, and Breezy). But I really can't abide that country guitar sound. I swear the more country he gets, the less shouting he does. And the fact he lets all of them sing does my head in. They are not worthy! Aw, he doesn't want them to sit on the sidelines. But not everyone can be a lead singer, can they? They don't let the duff ones at the back of Coldplay do their own songs, do they (they probably do actually, like when Take That lets Howard Donald have a go).
Five minutes in and the documentary just appeared to be songs, and clips of photos, which suited me to be honest, I don't really care about the studio, or the hi-hat, or how they all get along so well.
Oh. And so it begins. The banal chatter. One of them is sorely lacking a neck and appears to have a serious dental problem. I only like the one who plays the violin and who's in Bright Eyes and likes playing 'I Believe in Symmetry.' His name will come to me eventually. No, NOT Mike Mogis. Nick!
There's another one who's like a faux Conor. But what's the point when you have the real one there?
OMG. Ill-advised Conor beard. When I watched Louis the other night, ALL the sex offenders had beards. Beards are NEVER good. Come on Conor, you're already making your music tedious, don't go ugly too. Give us a rock to cling to. I know it's hard work being so pretty and everything, and being a heart-throb as well as a genius, but it could be worse; at least you don't have to get up early and suffer through failed performance reviews like in my miserable life. Those sideburns later on were just about acceptable, I suppose.
What is that bloody track with the didgeridoo on? It's interminable. Conor's ad libs between songs aren't much cop, either. Oh my god, and when he does that 'check, check, check' thing. It's as bad as Morrissey's intro tapes. Just play the fucking tunes! In fact, play ONLY the tunes I want to hear! Right?
It was nice seeing Conor shed a tear when Obama won the election.
So the whole band wrote songs called 'Eagle on a Pole'? That must be disappointing when you go see them and hear one of the crappy ones.
This documentary is worth a look but only if you're a diehard fan. Oh and download it if you can. The streaming made my eyes hurt and I kept having to pause it so it could catch up which was a bit of a rigmarole. But the version I downloaded first didn't work. Painful!
Conor said his approach to making music has changed from 5 or 10 years ago and hopefully it will change again in the future. I hope so too, I hope he becomes adventurous again, and not so plodding. He's my age!
I'm looking forward to the album, of course (except the cameos), but I'm still left wishing Conor would just put on some shoulderpads, team up with Patrick Wolf and do some thrash-techno. Is that too much to ask, as Morrissey once warbled in a very mediocre song. And how apt.
Oh and at the end, it turned out it was just one big advert, like in Starship Troopers.