Album Review: Conor Oberst - Upside Down Mountain

Upside Down Mountain is the ninth solo studio album for Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst. That makes it difficult to listen to the album without remembering the 20-odd years of angst and “emo”-indie that led us here, all the way through to his more recent exploration of Americana and alt-country. It's also impossible to extract this album from the events of the last six months, wherein his other band Desaparecidos dropped out of Big Day Out due to an emerging rape allegation.

At just 34 years old, Oberst remains a formidable figure in indie-rock  even as his subject matter has evolved from the free sex, heartbreak and suicidal urges of his youth all the way to his current preoccupation with aging and death. Even after all this time, he remains a clever songwriter and a storyteller, in touch with the emotions that most of us stuff right down into our bellies. He captures their rawness, regardless of whether he's holding an acoustic guitar or sounding anguished, crying out about lost love.

At the same time his music now is more subdued, although it still comes with his signature nasal lilt, and the welcome addition of an indie-rock song about boredom and fear. That song is Desert Island Questionnaire, a song that is at times incisive, “a toast to the ennui of our times”. An apt description of the rest of the album; it floats on by without fully capturing your attention, although the almost upbeat and strangely optimistic Hundreds Of Ways certainly comes close.