For the past decade, singer-songwriter Conor Oberst has used the name Bright Eyes to release 10 decadently moody folk and electronic albums with a rotating cast of musicians. Only just this month did Oberst venture to put out his first “solo” album since ’95 — aptly titled
Conor Oberst — with some help from his friends in the Mystic Valley Band.
Here we dissect the differences between Oberst’s two musical personalities.
LABEL: Oberst released the Bright Eyes catalog on Saddle Creek (which he helped start) and Team Love (his own imprint), but
Conor Oberst is his first effort on Merge Records, an indie label known for releasing albums from Neutral Milk Hotel and the Arcade Fire. This might be the most perplexing part of the equation considering the fact that as far as we know, Oberst has no vested interest in Merge.
SOUND: Because the frontman’s caterwauling vocals are so distinctive, any project that Oberst is on obviously sounds reminiscent of Bright Eyes (check out Oberst’s 2002 punk outfit Desaparecidos for additional evidence). However,
Conor Oberst sounds more stripped-down and less produced than Bright Eyes’ last few albums and recalls classic rock- and country-based artists like the Band or Gram Parsons more than Bright Eyes peers like the Decemberists.
LYRICS: Bright Eyes has always been distinguished by Oberst’s painfully personal lyrics. (Sample line: “
I kissed a girl with a broken jaw that her father gave to her/ She had eyes bright enough to burn me, they reminded me of yours.”) But on
Conor Oberst, the singer-songwriter writes from a more generalized outside perspective, favoring topics like society (“Lenders In The Temple”) and settings (“Sausalito”).
RECORDING PROCESS: Oberst has become well-known for recording his albums at Presto! Recording Studios in Nebraska, but this latest album was recorded in a slightly more exotic locale ― Mexico’s Tepoztlán Valley. In fact, the band constructed its own temporary studio in a mountain villa and spent a month over the winter crafting the
Conor Oberst songs, which helps explain the organic feel of many of the tracks.
SPECIAL GUESTS: Bright Eyes’ touring line-up has included members of bands like the Faint, Cursive and the Good Life and is usually completely different from tour to tour. However, not only is the
Conor Oberst line-up more rigid, he also eschews special guests that in the past have ranged from My Morning Jacket’s Jim James to country icon Emmylou Harris (both of which perform on Bright Eyes’
I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning).
AESTHETIC: In recent years, Conor Oberst has taken a cue from Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne and started to wear white Prada suits on-stage. As the video for “
Souled Out!!!” proves, Oberst’s most recent reinvention has him taking himself far less seriously. In other words,
Conor Oberst isn’t really a brand new project as much as it is a different side of the prolific 28-year-old songwriter.