Between Monsters Of Folk and Bright Eyes, it has been awhile since we've heard Conor Oberst in full blown folkie singer songwriter mode, but here he is in Connecticut July 26th, giving two new songs an acoustic run through and they are both Conor blueprint songs. When you want to know why Conor is so great, you could play him these songs and that would explain it.
Not just that they are great songs, rather they are the definably the same pen that gave us "One Of My Kind", "Nicorette", and " Gentleman's Pact" and in tempo, temperament and trademark lyricism, they are part of a story that seemed delayed for a couple of years. And the melodies are simple and elegant.
Indeed, both songs are simple and elegant melodic games, snapshot story songs, slice of life: "You Are Your Moms" has a tugging nostalgia, denied in the next song, "Kicks". In the former Conor is watching a friend grow up, and on the latter a friend go down. Stuck in in a void, "Kicks" is simply a beautiful downer with a way out pointed to in "You Are Your Moms".
Vocally, Conor is missing in "Kicks" -it is a harder song to sing, with just a guitar he has to hold the melody with his voice, and some of it is simply out of his range. With lines about Camelot and trust fund friends and… curses, it appears to be sung for a member of the Kennedys,. If you take that as a gimme, it is an empathic piece of anti-beatification for the next generation. How can you feel nostalgic for a time you never lived in?
Or try it this way: both are about growing up, in "Moms" there is a way out but the weight of history drags "Kicks" way, way, way down.
They are, of course, both excellent. As good as People's Key best moments. And to hear them down at chord changes and melody lines is a real treat.
You Are Your Mom -: Grade: A
Kicks: Grade – A