Bright Eyes - The People's Key (2011)

Connor Orbest for the seventh record of Bright Eyes has decided to go sci-fi, with a very sort of mystical discourse and time and throwing up lyrics with religious perspectives and no commitment, in that note, this record goes straight up Sinicism about meaning of life, something that’s not completely left field in Orbest songwriting because this things are present since early on in the Emo era of early works and kept on going with the Americana music that came along down the road.

What this LP has in difference of the rest is that the instrumentation is more intentionally produced for the purpose of the LP, is not only about a sentiment being expressed but this time the synths and sound effects serve the expression of emotion and not the emotion, boosts the sentiment, thing that in the past only served to the sentiment as a concept, so in that sense this LP has a more laid back feeling with more effects serving the singing.

If you go to criticize the cohesiveness in the concept probably you don’t find enough depth, or things that made Bright Eyes characteristics unique in the past that went beyond the way of singing of Orbest, that’s why some critiques find that this LP has just good production and missing Orbest’s personality and cohesiveness songwriting, this might also have a prejudice build thanks to the comments of the band saying that they were a little tired of themselves, giving the impression that for this LP they’re just tired of giving a discourse to a complete LP. But no matter what the critiques say, this LP will satisfy fans of Bright Eyes, especially when touching common grounds with songs like Ladder Song, which stands alone in the whole instrumentation of the album and pleases the desire of a much more depressed Connor Orbest and not the ironic one.

Despite of the speculations that this could be (or not) the last Brigh Eyes LP, this LP for me stands on its own like one of the better versions of the Bright Eyes trajectory, and I completely disagree with those who say that this LP portrays the band not wanting to do this anymore and doing this just to get it out of the way.

Tracklist:

1. Firewall
2. Shell Games
3. Jejune Stars
4. Approximate Sunlight
5. Haile Selassie
6. A Machine Spiritual (In the People's Key)
7. Triple Spiral
8. Beginner's Mind
9. Ladder Song
10. One for You, One for Me

Rate: 6.8/10

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