If you like Bright Eyes...

If you like - or love - the band Bright Eyes, you may well be interested in this review of the new CD Outer South by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. Written by Chris Holehouse of The Epic Times.

Conor Oberst knows how to tell a story. The Midwest native and front man for the band Bright Eyes, also has quite the knack for casting his poetic hymns across a great melody. Enlisting the help of the Mystic Valley Band, Oberst and friends venture into some interesting musical territory on "Outer South," a soothing ride through an acoustic countryside, brimmed with ample twang and polish.

"Potential, you're a loaded line," opens the 29-year-old indie songwriter in "Slowly (Oh So Slowly)," a rock-enthused number that mixes rowdy with playful and features Oberst's patented metaphor-doused reflection.

Potential may seem like a dismissible idea to Oberst, who's 10-plus years ascent to stardom has been seemless, granting him showers of praise and Bob Dylan comparisons, and winning him Rolling Stone's Top Songwriter award in 2008. But on "Outer South," we see Oberst sidestepping the reigns and letting band mates Nik Freitas, Taylor Hollingsworth, and Jason Boesel sew their vocal seed.

"Big Black Nothing" features a haunted Freitas sporting his Tom Petty camouflage in a tension-mounting groove that seeps into Hollingsworth's tongue in cheek, "Air Mattress," an innocent plea with spunky synths that Elvis Costello could call his own.

Still, the tracks where Oberst does take the vocal lead tend to dwarf his collaborators throughout the disc. While it's not totally apparent who wrote which songs, Oberst's magical ability to transcend intimacy and sing as if he was in the flesh and not echoing through a speaker ("White Shoes," "Ten Women") is what truly brings weight to all the Dylan comparisons and makes "Outer South" memorable.

"To All the Lights in the Windows" takes props from R.E.M.'s "Bang and Blame," but it's not a bad thing.

Outside of just a few different cuts, "Outer South" actually keeps Oberst's usual plaintive melodies on the down low and marches toward a more optimistic appeal. With a blend of different vocalists and six contributing members, The Mystic Valley Band sit well next to Oberst and help him chisel another accomplished notch on his songwriting belt.

Improving Tom Petty's Highway Companion...

"Highway Companion... feels a little off, as if Petty is striving to make a fun rock and roll record but his heart is in making a melancholy introspective album, where he's grappling with growing older." allmusic

Let me be clear about this, I've been a Tom Petty (TP) fan for a long time. I've seen TP and the Heartbreakers play live twice, I've owned most of the band's albums twice - original and re-mastered versions - and TP's Wildflowers solo album is one of my all-time favorites. When I depart on a driving trip, it's usually with me in either cassette or CD form.

So imagine my disappointment in July of 2006 when I purchased Highway Companion, his third solo album, and felt it was a C- effort at best. I was not alone... A fellow TP fan told me that he "hated it" so much that he threw the CD against a wall, breaking the jewel box it came in!

Simply being patient didn't work ("Maybe I'll like it better in a few months..."), so I just set it aside. Eventually, as I listened to the soundtrack from the great movie Elizabethtown, it dawned on me that there were two Heartbreakers/TP songs on it... It'll All Work Out from the band, and a slightly different master of Square One, the second track on Companion.

What if I take these two tracks from Elizabethtown and graft them on to Companion - making Highway Companion + (Plus), if you will? For some reason - or, actually, a couple - it seemed to work. The soundtrack tunes fit in with the mood and them of Companion and vice-versa. Further, it turns the short cassette-length album (43:56) into a CD that's a better investment for a road trip. The Plus version times out at 51 minutes and 30 seconds.

Oh, and I grade the new version as a respectable B- musically (even my friend liked it more than the original).

In order to create your own HC+ all you need is the Companion CD, the Elizabethtown soundtrack CD, and a computer program that will enable you to equalize the sounds (control the loudness levels) between the two CDs.

At another time, I might provide some track-by-track comments (a retro record review), but for now here's the new order of songs that I came up with in my touch-up exercise:

1. It'll All Work Out (3:47)
2. Square One (3:27)
3. Saving Grace (3:52)
4. Flirting With Time (3:20)
5. Down South (3:31)
6. Jack (2:33)
7. Turn This Car Around (4:02)
8. Big Weekend (3:19)
9. Night Driver (4:32)
10. Damaged By Love (3:25)
11. This Old Town (4:21)
12. Ankle Deep (3:28)
13. The Garden Rose (4:45)
14. Square One (3:27)

Note: The first version of Square One (track 2, above) has a fuller and richer sound, as is desirable for a film soundtrack. The second version (track 14) is "brighter," allowing one to hear the guitar work better. Both are fine masters, just varying slightly in bias.

Making Lemonade Out of Lemons...

Next: Touching up Tom Petty's Highway Companion solo CD.

"It's moodier than most of his records. ...This album isn't quite as fun as it initially seems on the surface." allmusic

Note: On the post, below, click on the orange link to see a video of Liverpool - a Beatles tribute band - covering a Beatles song.