Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community Center

Pitchfork 77

Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst team up for a tight-knit folk-rock album about alienation, solitude, and our potential to better ourselves against bad odds.

The Guardian 60

(Dead Oceans)

If indie is an endangered quantity, then its leading lights are finding strength in numbers. Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett kicked off the power collaboration trend in 2017; St Vincent is producing the new Sleater-Kinney album, and Jenny Lewis’s forthcoming record features Ryan Adams and Beck. California’s Phoebe Bridgers created Boygenius with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker last year, and now forms Better Oblivion Community Center with Conor Oberst (AKA Bright Eyes).

Their album is mostly the sum of its parts: hushed, literate songwriting where his boyish croak meets her anguished sweetness. Occasionally, subtle touches shift the atmosphere: the moody alt-rock guitar on Sleepwalkin’ and My City lends a gothic tinge; the pulsating synths of Exception to the Rule hark back to Bright Eyes’ cult 2005 album Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. Big Black Heart is the most captivating moment, cracking wide open as the pair scream against crunching guitars. The parts when their voices find a complementary sharpness offer a sense of friction that underscores the tension behind the lyrics.