Conor Oberst – Salutations review: ‘enormous emotional charisma’

Last year, shortly after calling time on his Bright Eyes project, Millennial troubadour Conor Oberst put out the most despondent album of his career.

Ruminations, released under his own name, was a series of raw acoustic demos recorded solo in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, where Oberst had retreated after a hellish spell involving a false online rape accusation and a brain illness.

Now he has reconfigured the same songs with fellow Nebraskans the Felice Brothers, drummer Jim Keltner and assorted folkies (M. Ward, Jim James, Gillian Welch). The wounds are still open — “When it came time to stand with him, you scattered with the rats,” he hisses on You All Loved Him Once — and the lyrics speak of adultery, betrayal, bereavement, accusation and frailty.

But now there’s a sense of redemption — even camaraderie in the fiddle-pedal steel-accordion arrangements. Till St Dymphna Kicks Us Out sounds a little like a wake that’s got out of hand, while Tachycardia makes irregular heartbeats and nightmares about courtrooms sound almost light.

Oberst’s devoted fandom may have dispersed, but he remains a singer of enormous emotional charisma with a willingness to plumb the depths. There’ll be more to come.

(Nonesuch)