Recommendations: Conor Oberst

So I was watching Spaceballs, and I realised that as parodies go it's pretty poor - in fact as Mel Brooks films go, it's very poor. And also I realised that I was really bored and already couldn't remember what happened in the preceding half an hour.

My mind wandered and eventually decided I should start something new. Some new project that would capture my imagination and also encompass some of the things I really like. Now as anyone who knows me can tell you, my attention span has, of late, dropped to a level which can only be measured in nano-seconds. So I somehow managed to string a few thoughts together, and from the Joycean mire that is my brain I decided that I should use my blog to write about new findings in music based on the bands last.fm recommend for me.

In short I'm going to listen to the artists which are recommended to me by last.fm and report what I think of them. I'm also going to only use the top three songs in the artist's charts, so I'll be listening to the people's favourites. If any of my reviews offend anyone, they can feel free to exclaim their annoyance via twitter or my bookface or through the comment section on this very blog.

My last.fm account is still relatively new, and I still haven't listened to any of Conor Oberst's solo efforts (or his stuff with the Mystic Valley band), and since I've listened to Monsters of Folk, Bright Eyes and Desaparecidos, it's no surprise that he's top of the charts.

First off, Cape Canaveral.

Maybe I'm cheating slightly as I've already listened to both of his recent albums, but I know that if this song wasn't the first song on his self-titled album, it wouldn't be top of his charts. With the quality of Lenders in the Temple, Milk Thistle, Moab, White Shoes and Snake Hill, this song wouldn't even make the top five for me.

While it is nice to see Conor has grown up, this still very much seems a sort of transition phase from Bright Eyes' angst to Monsters of Folk's maturity. He seems to be desperately trying to look at the big picture, but as he wrote before "the picture's far too big to look at kid, your eyes won't open wide enough."

Lenders in the Temple

Having been a literature and Classics student the lyrics in this song attract me. I love a good story, even the ones about Jesus which make abso-fucking-loutely no sense. There's plenty of classical and Biblical references in this one, and the fact that it's just vocals and guitar, I think adds to it. Conor's voice just seems to suit this type of song. The little sound of coins at the end is a nice touch too.

Sausalito

I'm going to be completely honest, I'm surprised that this song is so high on the charts. I imagine it is mainly because the song feels happy. There's just something very happy about it, maybe it's just the joy of escaping to somewhere different for a few days or of driving really fast with the windows down and the music up. This is good fun, but I think Oberst has much, much better stuff.

From these three songs (and I'm going to be quite honest here), I probably would tell myself to listen to Conor Oberst, but I just wouldn't get around to it. I liked Cape Canaveral, and I thought Sausalito was a fun song, but Lenders in the Temple was the only one which actually captured and held my attention. If it wasn't for the fact that I already listen to some of Oberst's music, and that I like it, I probably wouldn't have followed this up based on these three songs.

Thing is though... I have. And I'd recommend checking out these:

Lenders in the Temple, Milk Thistle, Moab, White Shoes and Snake Hill