Conor Oberst - I Don’t Want To Die (In The Hospital)

Never has a song with ‘die’ in the title been so chirpy! ‘I Don’t Want To Die (In The Hospital)’, taken from Conor Obersts’ 2008 self titled album, is an infectiously life affirming track which will stick in you head all the day long.

Great things are always expected of Mr. Oberst from his die hard fans since child prodigy became credible American mainstream fodder several years back. Recording under his own name for the first time with back up from ‘The Mystic Valley Band’, in this side project from the better known Bright Eyes, his latest work does not disappoint.

Oberst is a great storyteller and again a character, in this case a rebellious gramps defiantly unready to pop his clogs, tells a distinctive narrative; “Can you make a sound to distract the nurse, before I take a ride in the long black hearse”. All this is hugely life affirming regardless of the nod to mortality. A fine caper of a country rock song, albeit with a distinctive cracked indie croon atop the geetar, jigging about is practically compulsory.