In 2019, up-and-coming indie artist Phoebe Bridgers collaborated with her idol, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, to create the band\/eponymous debut album \u201cBetter Oblivions Community Center.\u201d The autumnal listen features jaunty tracks contrasted with melancholy lyrics. Oberst discovered Bridgers in 2016. The following year the two began touring together, with Phoebe singing on Bright Eyes\u2019 song \u201cLua\u201d and Oberst dueting with Bridgers on her song \u201cWould You Rather.\u201d After years of accompanying each other, they formed their band Better Oblivions Community Center to harness the strengths of both singers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The album kicks off with \u201cDidn\u2019t Know What I Was In For,\u201d a piece playing with themes of performative activism and institutionalism. Witty remarks from Bridgers in the first verse allude to a charity run. She reveals a cynical streak when she sings about how \u201cthere\u2019s no way I\u2019m curing cancer,\u201d yet she still pats herself on the back \u201cfor all the good I\u2019ve done.\u201d The following track, \u201cSleepwalkin\u2019,\u201d jars the listener awake with a loud instrumental introduction that sways its way into the melody. Afterwards, the fan favorite \u201cDylan Thomas\u201d rallies the strength of Bridgers\u2019 story telling lyrics with an upbeat and percussive chorus. The piece, named after the famous poet Dylan Thomas, begins with an allusion to his poem \u201cQuite Early One Morning.\u201d This sneaky reference gives a nod to Bridgers with one of the lines reading, \u201cDo you hear that whistling? It\u2019s me, I am Phoebe.\u201d Songs \u201cService Road\u201d and \u201cChesapeake\u201d possess a lullaby-like tranquility; however, they are interrupted by the forte synth piece, \u201cException to the Rule.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A critique that I\u2019ve seen online often is the placement of the track. I, too, did not understand this choice at first, but as I listened to the album more, I realized that it was because Oberst and Bridgers did not want to lull the listener and instead chose to showcase the variety of styles the band brings to the table. A personal favorite track of mine, \u201cForest Lawn\u201d reminds me of a windy day with its irresistibly swayable waltz rhythm. The song touches on mortality in a playful tune, discussing the prospect of \u201cending up in Forest Lawn\u201d \u2013 a Las Vegas cemetery \u2013 together. Although it seems like a grim place to fantasize being, they bring youth back to the circumstance, saying that it is \u201cwhere the teenagers drink til dawn.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although \u201cForest Lawn\u201d tackles an intimidating topic in a spirited manner, the next track \u201cService Road\u201d left me with a pit in my stomach. Written about Oberst\u2019s late alcoholic brother, palpable anger suffuses the diction of the lyric \u2013 \u201cDon\u2019t throw a fit, quit acting out,\u201d one verse goes \u2013 and Bridgers repeatedly sings \u201cWho are you?\u201d to convey the monster Oberst\u2019s brother became later in life. This song offers a humane approach to addiction that I find refreshing. Despite missing and loving his brother, Oberst still feels angry at his brother\u2019s actions and acknowledges that his demise was solely due to his addiction and refusal to change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBig Black Heart\u201d starts off as another acoustic song about false optimism that an unloyal partner would change their ways, and crescendos into a furious, electronic outro, signaling a change in emotion about the rose-colored relationship. Yet, however, the status of the relationship remains \u201calright for now\u201d and the narrator needs time to \u201cwrap my head around it\u201d before leaving the unsatisfactory partner. Some speculate that Bridgers and Oberst had dated and Bridgers wrote this song about their relationship, but any romantic involvement between the two was never confirmed. \u201cDominos\u201d ends the album with a voicemail from Oberst talking of cricket sounds and rivers to simulate the nostalgia for childhood summer. As a whole, the album remains a perfect listen for driving down windy roads as the seasons bleed into one another and making peace with fate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2019, up-and-coming indie artist Phoebe Bridgers collaborated with her idol, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, to create the band\/eponymous debut album \u201cBetter Oblivions Community Center.\u201d The autumnal listen features jaunty tracks contrasted with melancholy lyrics. Oberst discovered Bridgers in 2016. The following year the two began touring together, with Phoebe singing on Bright Eyes\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":1495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[27,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1496,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions\/1496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arouseosu.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}