If indie is an endangered quantity, then its leading lights are finding strength in numbers. Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett kicked off the power collaboration trend in 2017; St Vincent is producing the new Sleater-Kinney album, and Jenny Lewis’s forthcoming record features Ryan Adams and Beck. California’s Phoebe Bridgers created Boygenius with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker last year, and now forms Better Oblivion Community Center with Conor Oberst (AKA Bright Eyes).

Their album is mostly the sum of its parts: hushed, literate songwriting where his boyish croak meets her anguished sweetness. Occasionally, subtle touches shift the atmosphere: the moody alt-rock guitar on Sleepwalkin’ and My City lends a gothic tinge; the pulsating synths of Exception to the Rule hark back to Bright Eyes’ cult 2005 album Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. Big Black Heart is the most captivating moment, cracking wide open as the pair scream against crunching guitars. The parts when their voices find a complementary sharpness offer a sense of friction that underscores the tension behind the lyrics.

It can be one-note, but ultimately this collaboration between two artists known for their emotionally lacerating lyrics is all about the writing. There are striking character studies of desperate souls: the estranged brother of Service Road; the strung-out protagonist of Dominos, who watches her booze-tinged breath “drift like smoke in the fog”. Didn’t Know What I Was in For sketches human cowardice in rich imagery; and the “flag pins” and reckless king in Dylan Thomas put an appropriately disorienting spin on the Trump era.