Even if Conor Oberst has vacated his Bright Eyes alter-ego for the foreseeable, the Nebraskan remains uniquely entrenched at the dark heart of contemporary Americana. "That's why I wore this old-timey vest," he says as he introduces the anxious alt-country of If the Brakeman Turns My Way, dressed in a black waistcoat and white shirt with billowing, unbuttoned cuffs, sharp tongue lodged somewhere in cheek, "so you guys can see how fuckin' American I am".

With the lingering controversy of a rape allegation ended by a recent full retraction from his accuser, a shadow is finally lifted from the campaign for Oberst's sixth solo album, Upside Down Mountain. Songs from that 70s Laurel Canyon folk-rock-echoing set, recorded with rootsy LA rock players Dawes – who pull a double-shift tonight as both support and backing band – reveal an emotionally matured descendant of this once doe-eyed, Dylanesque poster boy for angsty, lo-fi indie rock. Against an outwardly jubilant backdrop of highlife guitars, Hundreds of Ways pertains to a depressive's search for means "to get through the day". "Just find one," Oberst's lyric gracefully concludes.

Elsewhere, we get selections from a prolific and collaboratively promiscuous career – be it Bright Eyes numbers, including Hit the Switch and the Nirvana-riffing Firewall, or songs with the Mystic Valley Band, such as the pummelling psych-rock of set closer Roosevelt Room. Throughout, Oberst pivots a broad arc of American music styles, even utilising one, in the case of Soul Singer in a Session Band, as a metaphor for being, as he puts it, "trapped in a circumstance where you don't belong".

Dedicated to his home city, New York, Lua remains a show-stopper, and a Big Apple ode that sharply contrasts the stars and stripes-draped bombast of others by Jay Z or Ryan Adams, with its story of romance snatched from despair, addiction and a long dark night in NYC. "I'm excited," says Oberst, "to be going home."