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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Conor Oberst
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 13 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Merge
Release Date: 05 August 2008
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock
Summary
The first solo album released on CD for the Bright Eyes singer was recorded in Mexico.
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times
His melodies curl to drive the stories, while his lyrics illuminate the road with a sometimes dazzling light.
Read Full Review >MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)
This vibrato-prone romantic is the greatest melodist in contemporary mega-indie.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
In terms of recording, speeding up, and trimming down he has produced one of his most intimate and exhilarating albums to date. [Summer 2008]
Entertainment Weekly
Sprawling and brawny, Conor is the least maudlin album Oberst has made. [8 Aug 2008, p.67]
Slant Magazine
It's no surprise that Oberst is able to pull off this style exceptionally well, but what impresses most about the record is how its relaxed vibe--the album was recorded with the specially assembled Mystic Valley Band in just two months at a private house in Mexico--carries over into Oberst's songwriting.
Read Full Review >Hartford Courant
Conor Oberst (Merge) is the richest collection of songs from Conor Oberst--via Bright Eyes, Desaparecidos, whatever--in a long time.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
By its very nature this is a more cohesive work than "Cassadaga," and a fine, true one at that: evocative, sporadically inspired and resoundingly enjoyable, repeat plays paying dividends.
Read Full Review >NOW Magazine
There’s a sense of playfulness on I Don’t Wanna Die (In The Hospital) and NYC – Gone, Gone that’s missing from Cassadaga, and enough catchiness to keep radio stations happy (even if said track happens to be an ominous ode to a dying boy), but it’s on the achingly simplest of songs where Oberst’s familiar splenetic growl returns at last.
Read Full Review >Observer Music Monthly
If hippie leanings and a penchant for image-dense, nature-inspired poesy make Oberst a kindred spirit to Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom, he can also be hard-nosed.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
Altogether, it might be his most mature and immediately listenable album.
Read Full Review >Uncut
It’s proof that, when he escapes from awkward, self-conscious navel-gazing, Oberst can be a songwriter of some note.
Read Full Review >Blender
Oberst always projects a spiritual generosity unknown to most footloose troubadours who can’t commit.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe
With Oberst, there is little filter; the gems and the rubbish all emerge from the same place. Oberst's talent and his unevenness are all of a kind.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
Conor Oberst's latest project has demonstrated his unmistakable ability to maintain continuity across an album while managing to quell any potential boredom before it begins to detract from the listening experience.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
If intended to initiate his career's second act, Oberst has an impressive start.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
The result is a confident, tight batch of tracks that beautifully encompass a prosaic kind of ache.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Oberst himself sounds enlivened by the chance to listen in and sing while he's at it.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Oberst has traded in a lot of his post-adolescent trembling for a calmer, less unbridled melancholy, but Conor Oberst is still packed with disheartening realities, and Oberst refuses to temper his pessimism, even when it starts to feel heavy and contrived, more like a narrative tic than anything else.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
It’s not the definitive work the self-titling might suggest but it’s sure as hell worthy of the name.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Conor Oberst doesn't sound much different from any of Bright Eyes' acoustic material, except that it is lacking in the bare honesty of his earlier albums.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Largely, this is the introspective folk rock of Bright Eyes, though there's some welcome shift away from autobiography.
Read Full Review >Sputnikmusic
Lyrically, however, the album is just another soul-searching journey, and while he may be getting too old to call a “boy genius”, he's not lost any of his wistful intelligence.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
The fact that the music does feel relaxed, even when it bears his classicist affectations, does make Conor Oberst markedly different than the music of Bright Eyes, and makes it a worthwhile project--even if it proves to be a detour instead of a new beginning.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
So, the jury is still out on Conor Oberst. His loyal fans will be slightly puzzled by the easy going roll of the music but rewarded by several choice lyrical nuggets, while his critics will point out that Dylan had already released Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde before recording John Wesley Harding.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
The opening and closing tracks prove that Conor Oberst is a more reflective and personal venture as both are stripped down affairs, one summoning childhood memories while the other seems to contemplate suicide.
Read Full Review >Spin
The album does an admirable job of living up to its low- key title (with spare acoustic tracks) and its situation (with loosey-goosey, classic-rock-indebted numbers).
Read Full Review >Dot Music
While it's certainly refreshing to hear Oberst refrain from swaddling his emotionally-driven conceits in rock statesman's clothing, much of Conor Oberst seems too comfortably by-the-book to really leap off the page.
Read Full Review >Mojo
That bravery and those haunting songs make for an album that, while not the very best Oberst has made, buttresses his growing reputation as the best songwriter working today. [Sep 2008, p.102]
PopMatters
Ultimately, Conor Oberst is a bit of a mixed bag, an album that’s often as frustrating as it is inviting. It is, however, a step in the right direction and a sure sign that Oberst is growing as a songwriter.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
Here, obsessed with his own mortality, Conor isolates himself from what stirs his best writing.
Read Full Review >Hot Press
A definite sense of fun permeates Conor Oberst, with the singer allowing himself to indulge a few whimsical idea's.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
From admittedly unsympathetic ears, it’s a fruitless mess caked with vanity and smothered by its own insular delusions of prosperity.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Although Oberst's reedy voice may occasionally shine, this album needs a bang rather than a whimper.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
voodoocookie gave it a10:
Conor nails it again. It doesn't sound too different from another Bright Eyes album but with each and every album his sound has been evolving. You can't really still expect him to sound like the fever/lifted days. Lyrics and music still top notch and he seems to be enjoying himself here which is nice to see!
Chad S. gave it a10:
If you're good, you can get away with a faux-off-the-cuff spoken-word narrative about a surreal plane crash, before launching acoustically into your best Bob Dylan imitation, as the thirsty Conor Oberst audaciously pulled off with aplomb and confidence on "At the Bottom of Everything"(from "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning"). He recorded himself drinking a beverage, and I didn't mind at all. One song is all it took to make me a loyal fan. A first impression is everything. Now, he's an I. Maybe Oberst stopped hiding behind his Bright Eyes moniker as a response to the similar move made by Bill Callahan(he who was Smog), or, Jakob Dylan(he who was a Wallflower). On this eponymous debut, Oberst finally wrote a song that is equal to anything in the Dylan canon. "I Don't Want to Die(in the Hospital)" sounds like an update of "Bringing It All Back Home"-era Bob, updated by Gordon, circa 1984. Listen closely, and you just might hear a hint of "Never Tell" and "Jesus Walking on the Water" from the Violent Femmes' underrated "Hallowed Ground". While everybody is mining the sixties for his influences, Gordon Gano might be flying under the radar. "Souled Out" makes funny reference to "Knocking on Heaven's Door", in which the recently dead "won't be getting in" because heaven is "all souled out". Warren Zevon got in. But will there be room for Axl Rose? He has some explaining to do about the original cover art for "Appetite for Destruction". "NYC-Gone Gone" is a cool Slade-like rave-up. And finally, the album closes gracefully with "Milk Thistle", a langorous ballad that sort of recalls Cat Stevens' "Moon Shadow".
Carl F. gave it a9:
Great album about escapism and life on the road. The music matches the lyrics perfectly. Seems like the critics are taking Conor Oberst for granted. An album that would be fantastic for a roadtrip across the United States.
JorgeBizarro gave it a7:
Melodic, warm, lOberst tells you part of his life sharing some drinks, maybe not his best, It's his most accesible.
