Conor Oberst

Conor Oberst-Salutations-24BIT-88KHZ-WEB-FLAC-2017-OBZEN
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:07:55 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Alternative
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover

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Conor Oberst – Salutations (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:07:55 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Indie Folk, Folk Rock, Alternative, Singer-Songwriter
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

A companion album to 2016’s Ruminations, Salutations is the fully produced, fully realized version of its skeletal predecessor. Where most artists release demos some time after the finished record hits the shelves, Conor Oberst decided to rush the monochromatic, vaguely pained versions of his 2016 compositions out first, then chose to succeed it with Technicolor renditions just a few months afterward. Salutations finds Oberst running through the same songs from Ruminations, adding seven new songs to the mix so it runs the length of a double album, all with the assistance of the Felice Brothers and ace drummer Jim Keltner. This full band is key to the success of Salutations. Comparing it to Ruminations, what impresses is the musicality — robust and sinewy, Oberst sometimes seems like he’s sprinting to keep pace with his band, and he’s grinning that he’s being outrun. Often, these moments crystallize on the new songs, songs that seemed designed for a full-throttle band, including “Napalm,” where Oberst and friends replicate the thin, wild mercury sound of Bob Dylan in his mid-’60s amphetamine prime. Dylan is a common touchstone throughout Salutations but if Oberst sometimes revives the Greeenwich troubadour imitation of his earliest days, the album truly gains traction when he decides to lean into the kineticism of this band. This is the big revelation of Salutations: where Ruminations sounded like a pained howl, this is a softer, soulful record, one where the delivery matters more than the content. Stripped to the bone, these songs could seem nervy, but surrounded by fellow travelers, they feel like a balm, and that also indicates just far Oberst has traveled. He’s no longer a busker preaching the truth only he knows. He’s no longer so confident — he gains confidence through collaboration — and the result is rich and resonant, a testament to the power of communal music over solo soul-baring. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Conor Oberst – Ruminations (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:01 minutes | 798 MB | Genre: Folk, Indie Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

Recorded in less than 48 hours with longtime collaborator Mike Mogis and engineer Ben Brodin, Ruminations sees Conor Oberst going full-on Nebraska, delivering a raw, difficult, and often beautiful set of deeply personal songs with minimal accompaniment. His seventh solo album and first since 2014’s Upside Down Mountain, Ruminations is a far cry from the fiery, politically charged punk of 2015’s Desaparecidos outing Payola. That said, it delivers much of what fans have come to expect from the prolific, erudite midwesterner; alternately shambolic and stately distillations of life’s hardships, delivered with honesty and wobbly conviction. Written during a particularly challenging time that found Oberst battling anxiety, depression, laryngitis, and a host of other medical ills, the ten-track set bristles with the unease that comes with having to confront a particularly large swath of the unknown. Utilizing piano, guitar, and occasionally harmonica, Oberst wrestles with past, present, and future, but most of the aptly named LP concerns itself with loss. It’s not the prettiest or easiest of records, nor is it Oberst’s finest outing to date, but it does house some real gems, including the emotionally charged opener “Tachycardia,” the thoughtful, Dylan-esque “You All Loved Him Once,” and the barbed and broken “A Little Uncanny,” the latter of which manages to pay homage to Jane Fonda, take down Ronald Reagan, and eulogize Robin Williams, Christopher Hitchens, Oliver Sacks, and Sylvia Plath, all in just over four minutes. ~ James Christopher Monger

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