Better Oblivion Community Center: Better Oblivion Community Center [DEAD OCEANS]

Why you'll love it

Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst wrote and recorded this in secret, then surprised everyone with a folk-rock gem Rolling Stone called "soft rock for hard times."

This edition

• Download card included
• Lyrics included

About the album

Nobody saw this one coming, which was exactly the plan. Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst wrote and recorded the album in secret in Los Angeles in 2018, then dropped it on an unsuspecting world in January 2019, complete with a fake wellness-centre website.

The name is a fictional dystopian wellness facility, and the songs wander its halls with wry, aching humour. "Didn't Know What I Was In For" opens soft and confessional, "Sleepwalkin'" and "Exception to the Rule" get loud and scrappy, "Service Road" is quietly devastating, and their cover of Taylor Hollingsworth's "Dominos" is a perfect closer.

Their two voices fit together like old friends, his weathered and urgent, hers cool and clear. Pitchfork called it a tight-knit folk-rock album; we'd just call it a keeper.

Also at Kops: more Better Oblivion Community Center on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Dead Oceans (cat# DOC188), the 2019 album.