Improve Our Oblivion? Or Something More?

Better Oblivion Community Center? The phrase itself purports that we make a collective attempt to improve on our, well, failure. It's sort of what we run into as we scroll through Instagram, as corporations feed us the anecdotes to the anxieties they create, and the market is awarding them. The better the oblivion, the bigger the profits, the deeper the oblivion-inducing claws sink into our very humanness. At least that's the idea that two songwriting aces, Conor Oberest and Phoebe Bridgers, came up with- releasing a concept album of sorts detailing the feelings that fill each step between us and the outside world- a political parade with confetti- a small black box we live through. 

Heavy political notions and societal critiques aside, if you listen to any song off of Better Oblivion Community Center, let it be "Dylan Thomas". Named after the famed early 20th century Welsh poet, "Dylan Thomas" greets us with a jingly, bright, energetic guitar riff before delving into the song's engaging melody- filled with images of 2019 scenery taken in by someone who's off-the-rails confused, looking at what we take for normal with an outcast eye ("these talking heads are saying/the king is only playing/a game of 4 dimensional chess"). Here, there is no relief from the search from away from oblivion and towards a "better" oblivion, trapping us in a weird emotional box. Throughout the song, Bridgers and Oberest sing together. Their voices are a little off. A little human, and that is certainly something.