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HOT OFF THE PRESS (#6) - Lackthereof & Conor Oberst
HOT OFF THE PRESS (#6) – Lackthereof & Conor Oberst
by Nick Courtright
It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly first glance at music discovered in the last seven days, whether it be just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained under the radar. Click here for other recent editions of HOT OFF THE PRESS, featuring bands such as Bodies of Water, White Denim, The Walkmen, Au, and Grizzly Bear.
Lackthereof – Your Anchor
Released July 22 on Barsuk.
It’d be pretty easy to compose a lengthy treatise on the rash of loop-based musicians playing prominent roles in the scene nowadays, a group ranging all the way from classically-trained Andrew Bird to knob-twisting Panda Bear, but instead we’ll just discuss Your Anchor and how it takes advantage of the benefits of looping, while also encapsulating the method’s potential pitfalls. Lackthereof, notable because they are the primary project of Menomena member Danny Seim, make music that sounds like a Menomena song lying prone on the studio room floor, like an engine taken totally apart and put only a little bit back together.
But this isn’t entirely a bad thing, as Lackthereof embodies the band name admirably, using stripped down melodies and sparseness to craft somewhat-naked pop songs. The album is full of songs that are catchy, but not so catchy as to be obnoxious, and any number of tracks could graduate to single status, including leadoff track “Chest Pass,” with its engaging lyricism and spare guitar, and late album staple “You Can,” a song which employs a lumbering bass line to hold down its almost-random percussion. While these songs, as well as early leak “Last November,” are nice numbers, some of the album tends to blur together, and the endless looping can become monotonous. And that apparently is the drawback that damages this otherwise engaging album—as soon as Seim finds a sound he likes, he’s not too sure when to let it go.
Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst
Released August 5 on Merge.
It must be hard to be a child prodigy. Conor Oberst, the erstwhile teenage rockstar who corralled legions of adoring fans with his Bright Eyes project, has been dealing with the fits and starts of his own graduation to adulthood, and the myriad themes it presents. Whereas much of his young work—it’s amazing to think he released his first cassette when he was thirteen—was alternately dour and angst-ridden, it had a certain jittery urgency to it that made it easy to love, regardless of whether you found his struggles endearing or merely the utterances of fickle youth. But as his growing pains have presented themselves to the listening public, that incredible urgency has gone missing in his work, and to some critics he’s been relegated to has-been status—a time capsule at the ripe old age of twenty-eight. But here he comes with a new release, the curiously titled Conor Oberst.
Using a notable calmness to craft not punky ballads and churning rockers, but country-influenced acoustic guitar music, the new album still features Oberst’s recognizable quavering vocals, but, much like his last album, Cassadaga, I was left wondering where all the passion went. Sure, the songs here are serviceable and effective on some level, but even after multiple listens it’s damn difficult to find anything that stands out—the album is so safe it seems terrified of taking any real musical risks. Only during “I Don’t Want to Die (In the Hospital)” does Oberst actually seem to let go and have any fun. In some ways, you can’t blame Oberst for resting a bit on his laurels and putting together only the most harmless of songs—after all, he seemed really pissed off for a really long time—but it remains a shame he hasn’t been able to bring his once-unique dynamism into his adult production.
By blog contributor Nick Courtright.