Because of my ongoing backlog of
new music, I’ve taken to randomly selecting every other album from my “new” (to
me) music section. This is about 100 albums that I haven’t given a solid three
or more listens to because I keep buying more music sitting sadly lined up along
the top of one of the stacks. Alternating between those and the main stacks ensures
I’m getting a good mix of newly purchased music and old favourites as I cruise
through the Odyssey.
This next album is so new to me I
only bought it two weeks ago.
Disc 961 is….Upside Down Mountain
Artist: Conor
Oberst
Year of Release: 2014
What’s up with the Cover? I thought an upside down
mountain might be a hole. Sheila suggested an iceberg, which I thought pretty
clever. Based on the animal paintings, Conor Oberst has gone with a cave.
How I Came To Know It: I was checking out Oberst’s 2016
release “Ruminations” and it made me interested in his back catalogue. This was
the album immediately preceding “Ruminations” and the best of what I’ve discovered
so far.
How It Stacks Up: Based on a lot of his other albums I checked
out on Youtube, I think “Upside Down Mountain” is one of his best, but for now
it is the only album I have and so can’t stack up.
Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5
Conor Oberst
is one of those artists that when I finally heard him – not heard of him mind
you, but finally listened to him – I wondered
how I’d never noticed him before. I’d had plenty of opportunities (one of my
old coworkers must’ve sent me one of his songs a half dozen times). I guess
that like so many things that are truly beautiful I had to let it come to me at
a time when my spirit was quiet enough to properly listen.
This is
not to say I like everything Oberst has ever done. The man has ten solo albums
and another nine as the principal force behind the band Bright Eyes. That’s 19
albums stretching back almost twenty-five years. I haven’t even begun to
explore, although I’ve started with the most recent and am working my way back.
I’m
early in that journey and I don’t love everything I’ve heard. I haven’t
encountered any clunkers yet, but there are times when Oberst can cross into a
saccharine pop where I can’t follow him, even if I can admire what he’s about.
Not so
with 2014’s “Upside Down Mountain”. I loved this record from the first time I
heard it only a few weeks ago and since then have been reveling in its
brilliance. It makes me excited about the journey backward into Oberst’s
catalogue.
It has
also made it clear that I should be cautious on my journey, and go wisely and
slow. Oberst is a true 21st century poet, and like other greats like
Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen his songs are full of dense language and powerful
imagery that are best absorbed over a long time and many listens.
Musically,
“Upside Down Mountain” is a mix of gentle folk-styled guitar strumming and
plucking that gives the album a restful almost new age feel, supported by a
backdrop of horn, string and syncopated drum beats that would be equally at
home on a jazz record, held tastefully in the back of the mix so as not to
disturb the star of the show. The whole package is then dressed up in some
up-tempo and very catchy pop sensibilities; the sugary coating that helps all
that deep thought go down easier.
The star
is Oberst himself. Not so much his vocal prowess, which while it’s a step up
from Dylan or Cohen isn’t going to blow you away. Oberst sings prettily enough,
but it is his songwriting skills that carry this record.
The
musicality on this record is brilliant, with each turn of the melody a perfect
match to the story Oberst is telling at the time. Those stories are so personal
you’re sure some are pulled from your own life but so universal they leave you
feeling comforted that you’re not alone.
“Upside
Down Mountain” has songs about getting away from it all, getting back to it
all, feeling like you can’t go on and exhortations to do exactly that. Every
subject is drenched in evocative language that makes your mind float along on
imagery that is often less about a linear narrative as it is about a journey
toward spiritual resolution. It would feel like stream of consciousness if the
care Oberst puts into the selection of each word weren’t so obvious. Oberst
admits to as much in the opening lines of “Zigzagging
Toward the Light”:
“I’m blessed with a heart that
doesn’t stop
My mind is a weather vane, it
spins just like a top
Knows what the winds of fortune
bring in the season of the witch
Home is a perjury, a parlor
trick, an urban myth.”
Later in
the same song he paints love as elusive and beautiful and dangerous:
“True love it hides like city
stars
Nothing to gaze upon or
contemplate how near or far
If it comes it comes quite
unannounced a momentary glance
Lit up by sun or moon or bonfire
or ambulance”
If you’re
like me and you grew up in a place with no city lights and a field of stars
every night, and then moved to the city and marveled at how rare you see only a
few, these lines resonate deeply. Getting burned by love a few times helps too.
This is
only one example, and the album is packed with songs that reveal Oberst’s own
insecurities and let you wallow a little in your own along the way. If he makes
you feel a little maudlin from time to time don’t take it to heart, because mostly
this record leaves you feeling inspired. It makes you feel like you’re going to
make it and maybe this whole crazy human race will as well. There aren’t easy
answers, but this record possesses a thread of optimism that is undeniable. As
Oberst says:
“There are hundreds of ways
To get through the day
Now you just find one.”
It doesn’t
matter which, because one is all you need. Tomorrow’s can even be different if
you like.
If I had
been able to hear this album when I was 19 it would probably have been a desert
island album (it even has a song called “Desert
Island Questionnaire”) but whether this record lands at five stars or falls
just short is immaterial. There’s always room in my collection for more music,
especially when it is this good.
Best
tracks: Time
Forgot, Zigzagging Toward the Light, Hundreds of Ways, Lonely at the Top, Enola
Gay, Double Life, Night at Lake Unknown, Desert island Questionnaire
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