Add Date: February 8
Artist: Bright Eyes
Album: The People's Key
Label: Saddle Creek
Genre: Bright Eyes
Comments: Bright Eyes' seventh studio album, The People's Key, is being described by NPR as "the best thing singer Conor Oberst has ever recorded", and by American Songwriter as "the most sonically adventurous Bright Eyes album". High praise, and delightfully, the album is wonderful. It opens with a 7-minute-long winding track--part recorded speech, part guitar + fuzzy Conor vocals, all slow build--and continues to showcase a startingly nuanced style with lead single "Shell Games", wonderfully precise yet full-bodied and catchy.
Throughout The People's Key, a sense of the album being carefully arranged is realized--it's polished, but still authentic, proving once and for all that even if Oberst has continually evolved stylistically, his songwriting remains en pointe. Less atmospheric than Lifted (a middle-school staple), sonically distinct from the Americana/roots vibe of Cassadaga, but appealing in its modernity, The People's Key sounds somewhat like a nice resting place for Bright Eyes (if this does turn out to be the last album)--mature, connected to some folk-ish roots, nicely experimental and developed, and tied down by Oberst's characteristic vocal stylings and songwriting style. Try tracks 2, 3, 8 and 9.
Artist: Bright Eyes
Album: The People's Key
Label: Saddle Creek
Genre: Bright Eyes
Comments: Bright Eyes' seventh studio album, The People's Key, is being described by NPR as "the best thing singer Conor Oberst has ever recorded", and by American Songwriter as "the most sonically adventurous Bright Eyes album". High praise, and delightfully, the album is wonderful. It opens with a 7-minute-long winding track--part recorded speech, part guitar + fuzzy Conor vocals, all slow build--and continues to showcase a startingly nuanced style with lead single "Shell Games", wonderfully precise yet full-bodied and catchy.
Throughout The People's Key, a sense of the album being carefully arranged is realized--it's polished, but still authentic, proving once and for all that even if Oberst has continually evolved stylistically, his songwriting remains en pointe. Less atmospheric than Lifted (a middle-school staple), sonically distinct from the Americana/roots vibe of Cassadaga, but appealing in its modernity, The People's Key sounds somewhat like a nice resting place for Bright Eyes (if this does turn out to be the last album)--mature, connected to some folk-ish roots, nicely experimental and developed, and tied down by Oberst's characteristic vocal stylings and songwriting style. Try tracks 2, 3, 8 and 9.
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