Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band

With Oberst dropping his Bright Eyes handle and heading to a studio in a Mexican city famed for UFO sightings to record this album, things seemed poised for the deep end. But aside from the 49-second conch solo of "Valle Mistico," he stays with a relatively unadorned set of songwriter-driven rock in the mode of Cassadaga. Sturdy Americana rockers like "Danny Callahan" and "Souled Out!!!" owe stylistic debts to Wilco, though the crystalline simplicity of the ballads -- especially the elegant closer "Milk Thistle" -- bear the heartrending confessions he's best known for.

On last year's Cassadaga, Conor Oberst left his home in New York to wander the country's
byways. On his latest album, recorded in Mexico, the Omaha, Nebraska, native is still
drifting, having ditched both his Bright Eyes moniker and longtime producer Mike Mogis. A
rough-hewn, death-haunted travelogue, this set proves that while you can run from home,
you can't run from yourself. And sometimes that's OK. Largely, this is the introsp... More >