{"id":1427,"date":"2014-05-26T10:16:09","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T14:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=1427"},"modified":"2014-05-30T11:46:24","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T15:46:24","slug":"conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor Oberst <br>Upside Down Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1428\" src=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg\" alt=\"Conor Oberst, Upside Down Mountain\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg 250w, https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>In nearly every article about Conor Oberst, there\u2019s a reference to his past as a former indie prodigy savant. Clearly this one is no different. However, it increasingly seems like the main topic of discussion should be Oberst\u2019s dauntingly prolific nature. Even taking into account that he started 19 years ago as a 15-year-old, the fact that over the course of his solo career, his time under the Bright Eyes flag, and all of his other side projects and collaborations, it\u2019s astonishing that Oberst has more than 20 full-length records under his belt. Once the EP and singles are figured in, he may be the most prolific songwriter whose name isn\u2019t Robert Pollard. As a result, he\u2019s cultivated a very specific voice. Be it backed by loud rock, electronic underpinnings, or an acoustic guitar, there\u2019s no mistaking Oberst vocally or lyrically. As such, one would think there\u2019s very little new ground to cover, but Oberst has found ways to push and explore new spaces in familiar territory. And such the stage is set for his latest solo album, <i>Upside Down Mountain<\/i> (Nonesuch).<\/p>\n<p>Another constant, Oberst has been stamped with the tag of \u201cfolk musician,\u201d which seems to stem from playing an acoustic guitar on a regular basis. It\u2019s an idea that was gently tweaked with the Monsters of Folk side project, but perhaps \u201coccasional acoustic rocker\u201d is more on the mark. It\u2019s that\u2019s version of Oberst that shows up on <i>Upside Down Mountain<\/i>, along with the underpinning of some country flavors like pedal steel. Lyrically, the album is very much in the storyteller tradition. Say what you will about him, when he wants to, Oberst can provide a sharply drawn narrative. In the past, he could be a tad obtuse, but here he gets directly to the point, with line after line of carefully constructed turns of phrase designed to elicit specific results.<\/p>\n<p>Musically, <i>Upside Down Mountain<\/i> very deceptively covers a lot of ground. Outside of the aforementioned country touches, there\u2019s some electronic accents (\u201cTime Forgot\u201d), some rave-up horn-driven moments of mariachi rock (\u201cHundred Of Ways\u201d), and some straight-ahead rock moments. And yes, there\u2019s even some folk. But what\u2019s notable is that there\u2019s a lot of blurring of the lines that doesn\u2019t feel like blurring. There are no post-anything moments on the album, instead it just sounds like the distillation of a lot of his past work with some new wrinkles thrown in. That could be put down to the fact that this deep into his career Oberst knows who he is musically, and this record reflect that. It may not have the punky flavor of some of his earliest stuff, but you can see that lineage too. At almost an hour, it does feel a bit long, but if the biggest problem is that, like Oberst\u2019s discography as a whole, there\u2019s too much quality, then that\u2019s a nice problem to have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In nearly every article about Conor Oberst, there\u2019s a reference to his past as a former indie prodigy savant. Clearly this one is no different. However<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,614,615],"class_list":["post-1427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-conor-oberst","tag-nonesuch-records"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain - The Agit Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain - The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In nearly every article about Conor Oberst, there\u2019s a reference to his past as a former indie prodigy savant. Clearly this one is no different. However\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheAgitReader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-26T14:16:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-30T15:46:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dorian S. Ham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@agitreader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@agitreader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dorian S. Ham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dorian S. Ham\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#\/schema\/person\/052e61e93859e4be05d8e06722ce0579\"},\"headline\":\"Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-26T14:16:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-30T15:46:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/\"},\"wordCount\":503,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Album Review\",\"Conor Oberst\",\"Nonesuch Records\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Album Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/\",\"name\":\"Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain - The Agit Reader\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-26T14:16:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-30T15:46:24+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg\",\"width\":250,\"height\":250,\"caption\":\"Conor Oberst, Upside Down Mountain\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/\",\"name\":\"The Agit Reader\",\"description\":\"a music webzine\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Agit Reader\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/agitcom.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/agitcom.jpg\",\"width\":339,\"height\":149,\"caption\":\"The Agit Reader\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheAgitReader\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/agitreader\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#\/schema\/person\/052e61e93859e4be05d8e06722ce0579\",\"name\":\"Dorian S. Ham\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79cc18731a8ca82cff8ba2334f1c92b012a00303541d0b4e215e078c5ee85b86?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79cc18731a8ca82cff8ba2334f1c92b012a00303541d0b4e215e078c5ee85b86?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Dorian S. Ham\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/author\/doriansham\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain - The Agit Reader","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain - The Agit Reader","og_description":"In nearly every article about Conor Oberst, there\u2019s a reference to his past as a former indie prodigy savant. Clearly this one is no different. However","og_url":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/","og_site_name":"The Agit Reader","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheAgitReader","article_published_time":"2014-05-26T14:16:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-30T15:46:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Dorian S. Ham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@agitreader","twitter_site":"@agitreader","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dorian S. Ham","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/"},"author":{"name":"Dorian S. Ham","@id":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#\/schema\/person\/052e61e93859e4be05d8e06722ce0579"},"headline":"Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain","datePublished":"2014-05-26T14:16:09+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-30T15:46:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/"},"wordCount":503,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg","keywords":["Album Review","Conor Oberst","Nonesuch Records"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/","url":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/","name":"Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain - The Agit Reader","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg","datePublished":"2014-05-26T14:16:09+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-30T15:46:24+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/conor_oberst-upside_down_mountain.jpg","width":250,"height":250,"caption":"Conor Oberst, Upside Down Mountain"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/conor-oberst-upside-down-mountain\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#website","url":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/","name":"The Agit Reader","description":"a music webzine","publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#organization","name":"The Agit Reader","url":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/agitcom.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/agitcom.jpg","width":339,"height":149,"caption":"The Agit Reader"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheAgitReader","https:\/\/x.com\/agitreader"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#\/schema\/person\/052e61e93859e4be05d8e06722ce0579","name":"Dorian S. Ham","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79cc18731a8ca82cff8ba2334f1c92b012a00303541d0b4e215e078c5ee85b86?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79cc18731a8ca82cff8ba2334f1c92b012a00303541d0b4e215e078c5ee85b86?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"Dorian S. Ham"},"url":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/author\/doriansham\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Up74-n1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1427"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1434,"href":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions\/1434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}