Now 28, Conor Oberst famously began his recording career at the age of 13. Since those early years, his solo career has taken something of a back seat, with most of his material coming as part of various bands, mostly Bright Eyes, whose last release was the well-received Cassadaga from last year. Taking a break from that band, Oberst travelled down to Mexico and through January and February of this year, recorded this self-titled album of folky country rock. The act of leaving the US and going to Mexico is directly referenced here in "NYC-Gone, Gone", but forms part of a wider, recurring theme of starting again. "Sausalito", for example, talks about making a change to living on a houseboat - and on "Moab", Oberst asserts that "there's nothing that the road cannot heal". Specifically, the album was recorded with the so-called "Mystic Valley Band" in the town of Tepoztlán, believed by the Aztecs to have been the birthplace of the deathly feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl. The story goes that when a European explorer unearthed a statue of said god, he found it so horrific that he promptly reburied it - I think we can be sure that history will be kinder to this album, which as it turns out is pretty good.Opener "Cape Canaveral" is possibly the album's strongest track and has its own theme of nostalgia - it looks back to the space missions launched from the titular site, amongst other things. It has a wonderfully bittersweet lilt to it, and forms a great opener to this varied album which refuses to settle entirely into a specific musical style. Even though it's only a touch over four minutes long, "Cape Canaveral" sounds quite epic, like a picturesque, nostalgic document. Oberst's voice carries the song, over quite a subtle guitar arrangement, supported by little more than a quiet stamping and one or two momentary expeditions into radio static.At the other end of the spectrum are songs like the aforementioned "NYC-Gone, Gone" which starts out like a football chant and ends like a thrilling slice of anthemic hard rock - as one of the album's shortest tracks, you almost wish it was longer and more fleshed out, with a reprise of the excellently heavy ending, but it stands well alone as a brief moment in the wider scene of the album. The whole thing rides on a simple but fun cyclic electric guitar riff, and is over almost as soon as it begins. Compare this to the album's other tiny track though, "Valle Mystico (Ruben's Song)" - which just seems like a completely pointless excursion into self-indulgence which only serves to break up the album's flow.Elsewhere is the frenetic "I Don't Want To Die (In A Hospital)" which does pretty much what it says on the tin narratively, but is noteworthy for its jumpy interplay between piano and guitar, and well as Oberst's amusing and increasingly frantic and desperate vocal delivery. "Lenders in the Temple" is disappointingly dissimilar to Prince's 1990 hit "Thieves in the Temple" but is a good song nevertheless - atmospheric, haunting and effective. There are some oddly cryptic lyrics, too - "that circus tiger's gonna break your heart", and "there's pink flamingos living in the mall".This album never sticks with one theme, style or tempo for long, which can be a bit jarring. It also doesn't quite maintain a high standard all the way through - "Milk Thistle" is a fairly cryptic closing song about death, but like some of the other more down-tempo songs it doesn't quite have the appeal of the album's first half. Nevertheless, Conor Oberst is a solid album and marks an impressive return after several years for Oberst's solo career. 74%Conor Oberst on MySpace