The People’s Key

_The People’s Key_ is the first full-length album from Bright Eyes for nearly four years, and almost a decade since _Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground_, which laid the foundations for Conor Oberst as a hero of pain-enthused indie back in 2002. It was suggested at one point that this will be the last album from Bright Eyes, and many fans believed that if Oberst was going to retire to Omaha, then the final album would perhaps look back to Bright Eyes earlier work that earned them so many loyal fans. But this certainly wasn’t the case, as Oberst,alongside Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, instead chose a harder electric sound, making a departure from the sounds of _Cassadaga, The Monsters of Folk, and the Mystic Valley Band_ LPs.

Listening to the album it feels as though it is enthused with a philosophical urgence to question all the secrets of life until they have been discovered. The opening track ‘Firewall’ begins with an oratory, which isn’t unusual for Bright Eyes, by a man with an intense and passionate tone questioning the nature of time, alternative universes, and the issues of human progression as the haunting voice booms with the statement “problems of the future can be solved by mankind because you create them”. The oratory then blends into riff introducing Oberst’s haunting vocals.

The opening song sets the theme for the rest of the album, as the catchy and upbeat second track ‘Shell Games’ debates preparing for another life, and the more upbeat ‘Jejune Stars’ asks “is it true what we’re made of?” On a first listening, it seems as though the album is split in two, with the first section of the album before the track ‘A Machine Spiritual (The People’s Key)’ focusing on a more bass-heavy and electric tone with tracks such as ‘Haile Selassie’ with a fragmented beat and synth tones. It can be said that tracks following it perhaps hark back to earlier Bright Eyes, such as the beautiful track ‘Ladder Song’ with its haunting piano melody, and the final track ‘One for you, one for me’ which establishes the albums consistent theme by finishing on the statement “when there’s total enlightenment there will be peace”.

Overall the album feels a bit fragmented on a first listen, and I think it would take several listens to get my mind around the issues brought up by the album. It is certainly an album that you can get drawn into, but the vagueness of the mysticism of lyrics in some tracks lacks in communication, making the songs to a certain extent difficult to remember after the initial listen as they are all rather similar. But I guess vagueness doesn’t always have to be a bad thing, as Bright Eyes have with ease pulled off creating tracks with heavy themes but in a light and effortless way through catchy pop tunes like ‘Shell Games’. I am unsure if this album if something I can engage with completely, but I’m sure for many fans the album represents something deep and spiritual that they will find truly enthralling.