Conor Oberst - Outer South Review

dig it

full review

Tracklist:
1. Slowly (oh so slowly)
2. To all the Lights in the Windows
3. Big Black Nothing
4. Air Mattress
5. Cabbage Town
6. Ten Women
7. Difference is Time
8. Nikorette
9. White Shoes
10. Bloodline
11. Spoiled
12. Worldwide
13. Roosevelt Room
14. Eagle on a Pole
15. I got The Reason #2
16. Snake Hill

Release Date: 05/05/2009

user rating

2.9
good

Chart.

related

Conor Oberst

members also liked

Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Brand New The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me
Bright Eyes Cassadaga
Bright Eyes Lifted or the Story is in the Soil...
Arcade Fire Funeral
Muse Absolution
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
Weezer The Blue Album

2.0
poor

Channing Freeman STAFF (73 Reviews)

2009-05-05 | 129 comments | 5,994 views

Summary: I wish it were still 2003 so Conor Oberst didn't suck.

In the eyes of his die-hard fans, Conor Oberst can do no wrong, and this annoys the crap out of me. Seriously, amongst the wealth of material that he's released as Bright Eyes, only four albums are any good, and of his other projects, only his 2008 self-titled album stands out. Simply put, he's good, but he isn't the god that some would proclaim him to be. He's had his fair share of lyrical triumphs, but the angst can be overwhelming, the poetry contrived, and his delivery of those lines annoying. I remember one time I showed somebody something I'd written, and they said it sounded like something Conor Oberst would write. I took that as an insult. So I've got this weird love/hate relationship with Conor Oberst, because I really do like Bright Eyes, but I'm sort of embarrassed about it because everyone else I know who likes Bright Eyes really likes Bright Eyes. And I always say, "No, he only has five good albums," but people always see that as blasphemy. I don't know what it is about the guy. He's not even hot.

And now, Outer South is here to exacerbate things even more. Someone was talking about it the other day, you know, "Have you heard the new Conor Oberst album???" But it's not even a Conor Oberst album. He only wrote nine of the sixteen tracks, and he doesn't sing at all on seven of them. But since his name is attached to it, it's a Conor Oberst album. Oh yeah also, no one seems to notice that the album sucks. It's just more of the same country drivel that he's been hinting at for, like, a decade now, only on this album it's fully realized with an ensemble band or whatever. Now, I'm not one of those people who hates country or anything, but if I'm going to listen to a country album, I would prefer that it not be longer than forty minutes. This album is seventy minutes long, which is its first pitfall. The Bright Eyes album Lifted... is a few minutes longer, but that album is actually interesting. Outer South is like hearing "Train Under Water," the worst Bright Eyes song, on repeat for over an hour. Only sometimes, "Train Under Water" has some kickin' organ licks, or Oberst is replaced by someone with an even less interesting voice. "Big Black Nothing" would be cool if it didn't sound exactly like the two songs that come before it, with a different singer (who sounds like Oberst, only deeper), and "Air Mattress" and "Snake Hill" are sung by perhaps the worst vocalist ever.

Things wouldn't be quite so bad if Oberst's vocals were something to write home about, but they aren't. Obviously, his voice has never been technically great, and a lot of people have found him annoying from the start. But there was always that damn honesty and conviction to his voice that was undeniable. On Outer South (and even on his self-titled album to a certain degree), he just sounds bored. His barely-there-sometimes and really-apparent-at-other-times country accent feels forced, and sometimes, like on "Cabbage Town," his delivery is laughable. His lyrics aren't too great either. While sometimes his Bright Eyes lyrics would fail, they were at least always relative to peoples' lives. Now when he sings stuff like "Come on down to Cabbage Town," I just can't help but laugh and shake my head. The appeal just isn't there anymore.

Perhaps I'm being too hard on Outer South. Maybe all of my grievances with Oberst have been close to the boiling point for a while and this is just the tipping point. Nevertheless, there aren't too many redeeming points about the album. There are no differentiating factors among the songs. If you're really interested, I guess you could listen to "Ten Women," because it's the only song that comes close to being decent, but other than that, Outer South is too long, too uninteresting, and too uninspired to be anything better than not good at all.

Share: Facebook Stumble Digg Twitter Del.icio.us