Better Oblivion Community Center

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For Bridgers, this was essentially square one. Her songs, hushed and patient, often seek in-the-moment honesty over retrospective wisdom. She’s equally adept at capturing an omnipresent fog of melancholy and the cosmic joke looming just outside our periphery. Her debut was filled with odes to friends who died too young and woeful retellings of her stoned, late-night regrets, all sung with a lightness that made her worldview seem both chaotic and consoling. Late in the album, she invited Oberst to sing on a ballad called “Would You Rather.” Voicing the troubled family member who helped make Bridgers’ childhood survivable, he echoed her fluttering whisper in a low, empathetic wheeze: “I’m a can on a string/You’re on the end.” Conor Oberst – vocals (1–10), guitar (1, 2, 4, 7–9), baritone guitar (3), piano (4, 10), keyboards (5), Whirly tube (7); production, photography Music critics have spilled a lot of ink over your guys work. I’m not even gonna try. But can you describe each other’s song writing in three words?

It’s got a sort of grunge vibe. Did you know that in dream analysis the color yellow is symbolic of intellect, energy, agility, happiness, harmony, and wisdom? Ah, okay. But you wrote them together. It’s not like Conor would have a song and send it to you, or you would have a song and he would just add bits to it. These songs you guys sat down and wrote together. In the same room? Trendell, Andrew (January 27, 2019). "Phoebe Bridgers & Conor Oberst – 'Better Oblivion Community Center' review". NME . Retrieved January 27, 2019. So then you guys would guest at each others shows, right? And Conor, you were spending a lot of time in Los Angeles around this time. Cuz you’ve been in Omaha mostly the past few years but you have a spot in LA, on the West Side. Phoebe Bridgers – vocals (1–10), guitar (1–4, 6–8), electric piano (2), baritone guitar (9, 10); production, photographyRight, yeah. That’s true, “gravity” is a perfect word for it. And you know, I say ‘in unison’, it’s from the Latin. It means, literally, ‘one sound’ but when you guys sing together it’s really not, it’s incredibly rich because you get both these different emotions from the exact same lyrics. The sort of clear eyed optimistic sound of Phoebe’s vocal and then the more seasoned sound of Conor’s. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.

I wanted to talk about “Dylan Thomas” cuz that’s the first single, right? It’s the first single and the last song you wrote for the album. There’s a lot of death and ghosts on the album, and mentions of illness and feeling unwell and being anxious - and those are things you’ve both written about a lot - which is partly why this collaboration works so well. Dylan Thomas, we all know, is the esteemed Welsh poet who died in 1953 at the age of 39. He’s mentioned for ‘dying on the barroom floor’ and you know, he was definitely a big drinker. He was drinking at the White Horse in the West Village every night he was in New York before he died. And he fell into a coma at the Chelsea Hotel and died soon after at Saint Vincent’s on 8th Avenue. Did you know that he actually died of emphysema, pneumonia and bronchitis? And that in November 1953, the month he died, over 200 people died in New York City from air pollution? He probably died from smog. You guys obviously compliment each other vocally, we talked about that, but you also feel an affinity with one another in that you admire each other’s songwriting. And you both generally write alone, right? It’s not your usual thing to write a song with someone else. Serota, Maggie (January 24, 2019). "Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers Perform as Better Oblivion Community Center on Colbert". Spin . Retrieved January 24, 2019. Snapes, Laura (January 25, 2019). "Better Oblivion Community Center: Better Oblivion Community Center review – indie power combo". The Guardian . Retrieved January 25, 2019.

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Phoebe Bridgers Chart History (Top Americana/Folk Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 14, 2020.

Alright. We can leave that in, I guess we answered it... So let’s get to when you two met. It was a show at the Bootleg in LA, and Conor you were playing a secret show and Phoebe, your friend at the venue got you to open for them. This was July 2016, so before Stranger In The Alps was out, and Conor, you were there early enough to watch her set. And afterwards you asked her to send you her record. You must’ve really been impressed with her set. Hall, Michael James (January 28, 2019). "Better Oblivion Community Center: Better Oblivion Community Center (Dead Oceans) Review". Under the Radar . Retrieved January 30, 2019. Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50 - 1 March 2019". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 15 April 2022. Did you guys ever sit down and talk about themes or how you wanted the album to sound? Did you discuss what kind of songs they’d be or did you just sit down and start writing to see what would happen? Better Oblivion Community Center, the new band from Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst, recently surprise-released their self-titled debut album. They kept their plans under wraps for months as they wrote and recorded in Los Angeles in the summer and fall of 2018. By the tail end of the year rumors were swirling and a mysterious phone number appeared on social media platforms. Fans of both artists began receiving enigmatic brochures in the mail and a bus stop advertising the Better Oblivion Community Center appeared in their hometown of LA. Then, the album appeared, without warning, on streaming services, and within the hour the band were performing, for the very first time, on network television.

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a b Walker-Smart, Sam (January 24, 2019). "Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community Center". Clash . Retrieved January 24, 2019. He wasn’t kidding. After some trying years, Oberst’s recent work has been a vessel for stark, existential unburdening. On 2016’s Ruminations and its 2017 companion Salutations, he funneled first-person accounts of grief, depression, insomnia, paranoia, court appearances, and hospital visits into his most vivid and unsettled music in years. Drawing a direct line to the shaky downer anthems that made Bright Eyes an influence for so many young artists—Bridgers included—these newer songs sounded exhaustive and raw, like there was a punchline at the very bottom of all his anxieties and he’d dig through them like a pile of dirty laundry to uncover it. Trendell, Andrew (January 29, 2019). "Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst share 'Dylan Thomas' video and announce Better Oblivion Community Center UK and world tour". NME . Retrieved February 22, 2019. The album had an elaborate rollout featuring cryptic brochures and a telephone hotline. [6] They performed "Dylan Thomas" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on January 23, 2019. [7] The album was released the next day.