Last summer I was part of a theatre project that was written and directed by Paul Hardy. Before the shows and during the intermission, Paul would play various down-tempo emo artists mumbling through their songs. It was definitely not my style, and I cringed everytime it started up. But Paul was very sincere in his belief that the Saddle Creek artists from Omaha were doing something meaningful and important. And all of the attractive young women in the show thought that Conor Oberst (who?) was the bomb. However, Rhapsody did not have a license with the Saddle Creek label, and none of their artists were available through Rhapsody. Which of course made their songs much more interesting. Eventually, after downloading and listening to some of their songs many, many times, they began to grow on me. Took me back to a melancholy place that I thought I had left in college. So, now whenever I listen to Bright Eyes and its ilk, I immediately feel like a disaffected youth. Damn you Paul Hardy! :)
Well, Conor had some sort of falling out with Saddle Creek, which is a good thing for us. Because this is the first Bright Eyes album that has shown up on Rhapsody. It is a collaboration between Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and Jake Bellows (Neva Dinova), and while it isn't Conor's best stuff, it is pretty representative of his style. Perhaps a little more upbeat than most of his stuff. So, give it a listen and prepare for a little brooding.
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