“And they’re spread gossamer thin/ Pushed to the edge, frayed at the ends,” Conor Oberst sings over a folk-rock waltz, detailing one man’s spiral into substance abuse and infidelity. But the line feels relevant to the songwriter’s own career: In 2015, Oberst canceled his reunion tour with indie-punk band Desaparecidos, citing “laryngitis, anxiety and exhaustion.” In that fragile state, he decamped to his hometown of Omaha and wrote a slew of songs on acoustic guitar and piano. Those raw home demos ultimately became 2016’s Ruminations, which many critics heralded as a return to form, partly because of its focus on shrewd character portraits and his inimitable, warbled yelp. But Oberst wasn’t done tinkering, so he rerecorded the full LP (and seven new cuts) with backing band The Felice Brothers and iconic drummer Jim Keltner. The result is Salutations, which loses the intimacy of its predecessor but gains a wider, more engaging spectrum of sounds. “Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out” comes to life with Keltner’s ticktock hi-hat; a gliding violin transports “Too Late to Fixate” from melancholy meditation to cathartic parade. Almost all of Ruminations is injected with new life—unfortunately, some of the unheard material stretches that folk-rock vibe, well, gossamer thin. “Empty Hotel by the Sea” feels like a rootsier take on Oberst’s Bright Eyes classic “At the Bottom of Everything,” down to the vocal melody and phrasing. Ruminations is essential Oberst—just a bit too much of it.