[mp3] Conor Oberst - "Nikorette"

Last year’s self-titled solo album from Conor Oberst was by no means his finest effort, nor did it try to alter his wordy, folk-influenced songwriting approach. Instead it was simply a pleasant reminder, after the clumsy missteps of Cassadaga, that Oberst is capable of writing some awfully pretty songs when he’s focused. Less than a year later he’ll release Outer South, a quick follow up that once again ignores the Bright Eyes moniker in favor of his new friends in the Mystic Valley Band. Outer South drops May 5 via Merge Records.

“Nikorette” is the first song to surface, and, as an exercise in Oberst’s by-now-familiar melodic structuring, works fairly well. I guess. No, that’s not a glowing endorsement of this song - one that walks a fine line between “familiarly pleasant” and “kinda boring”. As with most of last year’s album, Oberst delivers a vocal that never loses control, lyrics of restlessness and movement, and the Mystic Valley dudes sound like a well-oiled bar band. It’s a nice little song with a handful of decent lines, but certainly doesn’t suggest that Outer South, at a staggering 16 songs deep, will measure up to his best work. He surprised me last year though, so we’ll see.

MP3 :: Nikorette
(from Outer South. Pre-order here)

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There’s also a documentary that, er, documents the past year in the life of the Mystic Valley Band coming out April 15. What‘s unique about One Of My Kind, other than being filmed by guitarist Phil Schaffart, is the fact that it will be available for FREE through Causecast.org. The idea is that fans will appreciate the gesture and donate to one of the charities that works with the website. Nice. Watch the trailer here.
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