My Top 1000 Songs #605: Dylan Thomas

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

"Dylan Thomas," off the 2019 self-titled debut from Better Oblivion Community Center, has a couple strikes against it. First, there's the usual caveat about including music from the past few years, as it's tough to predict if it'll have the long-term staying power of a truly song. Second, the band appears to be a (at least at this point) one-off super-group, a collaboration between Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers, making it something of a novelty.

All that said, what a lovely little tune! Great melody; Oberst & Bridgers shine with their shared harmonizing; and the lyrics are vivid and evocative. ("So sick of being honest, I'll die like Dylan Thomas, a seizure on the barroom floor.") (Which, per Wikipedia, isn't quite accurate, but great lyric nonetheless.)

Ok, just one more: "I'm getting used to these dizzy spells, I'm taking a shower at the Bates Motel, I'm getting greedy with this private hell, I'll go it alone but that's just as well." Groovy!

Live in the studio, 2019: