The sessions for Monsters of Folk's self-titled debut had the indie collective's four songwriters -Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward and Mike Mogis-bringing ready-to-record songs to the proceedings. Introduced by James' falsetto, the thrift-store soul of the sublime album opener "Dear God" is obviously the brainchild of the My Morning Jacket singer, while the grimly gorgeous track "Temazcal" is clearly from Bright Eyes leader Oberst, and so on. Those who saw the foursome tour together under their own names in 2004 (where they sometimes performed on each other's songs) shouldn't be surprised by the seamlessness of the set's songs. At times, it's difficult to differentiate between who is singing ("Say Please," "Baby Boomer"), thanks to masterful producing by Bright Eyes' Mogis. When viewed less as a hipster supergroup and more an old-fashioned song swap, Monsters of Folk live up to their hype and then some. --Wes Orshoski
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Monsters of Folk, "Monsters of Folk"
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