What makes it so great? Simple: Eight songs off his first solo album, the 2008 eponymous one, my fave album of that year, my favealbum Conor has played on. So good it survives comparison with GP.
If I get a setlist half this good I will be a very happy man.
1. Sausalito – Off the first, actually the only, solo album. A sexy travelling song whoch leaves the uptight nyc opener for the road Grade: A
2. Get Well-Cards – Written by hand, same album. The rhythm is so solid, it seems to shake from indentrue to indenture – Grade: B+
3. We Are Nowhere And It Is Now – From the best album of the 00s, but not the best song off the album though one of the most loved. Wonder how it will sound without that windpipe – Grade: B+
4. Soul Singer In A Session Band – Bright Eyes released this as the single off the album and the video was terrific, the bitterminded waltz is still maybe the worst song off the album. Also, the metaphor is overcooked – Grade: B
5. I Won’t Ever be Happy Again – Sounds like pre “Lifted” Bright Eyes – Grade: B
6. This is a very good song off “Lifted”, but I am not sure if I want to hear it write here – Grade: B+
7. Cape Canaveral – No, not his most important song. But his best melody and his best lyric – Grade: A+
8. Danny Callahan – A fantasy about a kid dieing of cancer. Worst song on the album – Grade: B+
9. Ahead Of The Cure – With Yim James and M. Ward, not bad but he did a couple better – Grade: B+
10. Ten Women – Country folk hokum off his worst album – Grade: B-
11. Lua – When people cover Conor, they cover this, when I want to turn people on to Conor I give them this If it doesn’t flip you out, Conor is not for you – Grade: A+
12. Make A Plan To Love Me – This lovely ballad with pretty backing harmonies is a real change of pace – Grade: B+
13. MOAB – Marshal beat, that’s Janet Weigel on drums, and the albums theme: “there’s nothing that the road can not heal – Grade: A-
14. Eagle On A Pole – One of the best songs about drug addiction ever written – Grade: A+
15. I Don’t Want to Die In The Hospital – That’s why he’s trying to get his boots on – Grade: B+
16. Easy/Lucky/Free – One for the girls, and better than I remember it – Grade: B+
17. Roosevelt Room – The dillietant trys a blues song – Grade: C
18. Make War – Classic end of the line song – Grade: A+
18. Milk Thistle – The second song about addiction and another classic – Grade: A+