Send "Conor Oberst " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Slantmagazine |
 Ten years after breaking out with Fevers & Mirrors, Conor Oberst has, after a string of middling albums, exhausted much of his early promise and critical goodwill, the wunderkind buzz entirely behind him, the always unrealistic Dylan comparisons almost completely forgotten. Now, with Oberst approaching 30, Outer South, with its messy, collegial feel, represents a test for the Omaha songwriter, broaching the question of whether, free of hype and high expectations, he can cut it as an adult musician. Recorded in Mexico with a gang of friendly contributors, the album has the laidback feel of a weekend romp, a ragged warmth that helps to ease the histrionic jitteriness that plagued Oberst's earlier work. It's an easy looseness that he's been striving to affect for his entire career. Whether puncturing the big, busy compositions with barroom choruses and false endings on Lifted or experimentally trimming his sound on the Wide Awake/Digital Ash pairing of 2005, his music has always suffered from a self-conscious fear of pretension. But the homey atmosphere here feels less like a mature progression than the dead-end achievement of a misguided goal. The result is an album that's unfortunately baggy and sodden with filler, which could have benefited from a little less camaraderie and a little more revision....full text |
| Billboard |
| February 19, 2009 03:08 PM ET Katie Hasty, N.Y. Conor Oberst has wrapped his second album with his Mystic Valley Band, "Outer South," and will release it May 5 on Merge Records. The group debuted with an album under Oberst's name last summer. The five-piece Mystic Valley Band, which consists of guitarist Taylor Hollingsworth, guitarist Nik Freitas, bassist Macey Taylor, keyboardist/trumpeter Nathaniel Walcott and drummer Jason Boesel, all performed on "Conor Oberst" and served as the singer/songwriter's backing band on tour last year. Oberst and company have scheduled an April tour to lead up to their performance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts festival in Indio, Calif., on April 17. They will also play the Telluride Bluegrass Festival on June 18 in Telluride, Colo....full text |
| Expressmilwaukee |
| If Conor Oberst must dedicate himself to a band that isn't Bright Eyes, couldn't he at least reunite Desaparecidos? This Mystic Valley Band that he's spent the last couple years with just isn't cutting it, yet Oberst doesn't seem to be getting the message, since he's doubled down on the project with his upcoming album, Outer South. This time Oberst leased out valuable album real estate to his Mystic Valley Band-mates Nik Fritas, Taylor Hollingsworth and Jason Boesel, who each wrote and sang a couple tracks a piece—a kind gesture, but a misguided one, given that none of the trio are memorable songwriters. Of all the complaints leveled at Oberst's last album—too tepid, too static, too James Taylor-ish—too much Oberst wasn't one of them. How does having the drummer from Rilo Kiley fill in for a couple songs fix anything? At least the tracks that Oberst didn't outsource are much improved from the last record. The philosophical platitudes of last year's self-titled album have been replaced with Oberst's incendiary, Christian-baiting wit, and similarly the music itself has a little more fight to it, too. But there will always be a ceiling on Oberst's songs so long as he sticks with the Mystic Valley Band's standard-issue country-rock. Tellingly, the album's best song, "White Shoes," does away with the backing band altogether. A refreshing return to the quivering, over-reverbed intimacy of vintage Bright Eyes, it's sadly out of place on a record filled with boilerplate twang....full text |
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