Conor Oberst

Both as a prodigy addled with "new Dylan" acclaim and an emo icon with a bratty attitude and nose-grazing bangs, Conor Oberst has been a squirrelly performer, whipping between genres and moods. Still, whether it's Desaparecidos' frantic punk-rock or Bright Eyes' folksy mewling, Oberst infuses most everything he touches with an awkward, frantic desperation; as a vocalist he sounds perennially uncomfortable, muscles tight and prepped to sprint away from the microphone. On his self-titled Merge debut, Oberst is focused on making escapes-- moving on, moving over, breaking out, hitting the streets, leaving it all behind, don't look back. "There's nothing that the road cannot heal," Oberst vows in the Tom Petty-esque "Moab", and he's never sounded more convinced: Conor Oberst figures escapism as its own kind of religion, a workable belief system for kids that can't sit still.

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