Bright Eyes:The People’s Key Review

Artist: Bright Eyes
Album: The People’s Key
Label: Saddle Creek

Bright Eyes’ highly anticipated tenth full-length album, The People’s Key, has a drastically different sound than its predecessors, including 2007′s Cassadaga. It seems as though Conor Oberst decided to return to 2005′s Digital Ash in a Digital Urn route of synthesizers and electric pop guitars. While some fans may feel disappointed in the retreat, some artists feel change is important. Underneath all the new sounds, Conor’s soulful voice and heartfelt lyrics still remain.

Kicking off (and ending) the album is a guest speaker, a Texas musician named Randy Brewer, whose sermonettes seem to correlate with the ongoing theme throughout the album of questions and understanding of death and the afterlife. “Shell Games” is a favorite on the radio right now, and is one of the more upbeat songs, which could have been heard in the 80′s era. “Jejune Stars” is another peppy track that one could find on an American Pie-esque soundtrack, as it deals with childhood and growing pains. The album slows way down with the depressing “Approximate Sunlight” where those powerful lyrics come into play in speaking of love lost; “All I do is follow you around” and “Now you are how you were when you were real.”

“Ladder Song” packs a powerful punch right in the gut and is tear-inducing*. The lone piano and Conor’s sad singing of the lyrics made it all too obvious he was referring to an actual person that he lost (upon later research it was found that he did indeed lose a friend to suicide). The album closes out with “One For You, One For Me”, which speaks of all types of people, perfect for hearing in an Irish Pub somewhere.

While I appreciate the need Oberst has to change things up, this type of music didn’t do a lot to showcase the lyrics, sounding redundant after a while.

Rating: blank star Bright Eyes:The Peoples Key Review