The People's Key

A leader who overshadowed the whole band

We say Bright Eyes and we mean Conor Oberst, the American band’s most powerful unit. Magnified like nobody else for the outfit’s each successful move and mercilessly criticized for each misstep, Conor is forced to carry on his eternal quest to offer to the audience something new and no less interesting than what he already offered. This the only way to fulfill the listeners’ high hopes and knock the bottom out of the skeptical expectations of the critics. As a result, Bright Eyes latest records tend to look more like Oberst’s solo efforts rather than collective musical works, which not everybody likes and no everybody understands. Oberst’s sad and intellectual verses made the band’s musicians shift from indie-rock to what is today called emo-rock. The audience actually forgot about the existence of the remaining members of Bright Eyes keeping its focus on Conor’s voice and words. This looked fine until Conor said in a couple of interviews that he had speculated on the dissolution of the ensemble. It could be so that reporters mistook his message or so that he later changed his mind. Either way, in the early 2011 we received another long player from Bright Eyes. The People’s Keys became the band’s album number eight. Should there be any doubt that there are some surprises here?

A beautiful mess on The People’s Key

Conor’s unlimited soul-searching made Bright Eyes new album easy a message that is easy to misunderstand, misinterpret and mistake. Sure, there is a message here, in each song, because their author is Oberst. He must have had serious grounds to start the album with the seven-minute Firewall that may disorient some of the listeners. There must have also been reasons for making the electronic part of the music more intense, and the keyboard parts more distinct. In the meantime, the guitar riffs have turned into somewhat occasional. But there is no order in all of it. What if it all falls into place if we see the lyrics? What if this is a conceptual album where the so different musical pieces simply serve as set for the twisting plot? Yet the lyrics by Oberst have long been known for giving more questions than answers. Beautiful, colorful, original, yet understandable only to him these verses are only hints. While emo-rock tells us stories of the things most of us know, like private life troubles, loneliness or social rejection, even those who know English brilliantly may fall into confusion. The psychedelic Haile Selassie contains a number of references to exotic religious images. The dynamic, overfilled with powerful beats, A Machine Spiritual speculates on the cycled nature of history and the end of days.

A farewell kiss from the band?

So much electronic, The People’s Key is a Bright Eyes record. Mostly because it is a product manufactured by the well-cooperating tandem of Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis, a multi-instrumentalist and producer of this album. Should emo-rock advance toward electronic, this album would become an example for everybody else to follow. But this not what we have today and all these experiments with synthesizers pushing out guitars will have a great deal of criticisms. Those favoring Oberst’s poetic talent, who love his lines for their vagueness, will like the lyrics of this album, too. Others, well, might not be so pleased. Undoubtedly stylish, proficient and properly executed, The People’s Key, unfortunately, does not help us forget an irksome thought that Conor plans to put an end to Bright Eyes. There is too much of him here and too little of the remaining musicians. Even the official release of the album was scheduled for the leader’s birthday, which is supposed to bear some hidden message. Even if this actually is the last record by Bright Eyes, it is great that the band’s history is closed by a powerful, although contradictory, album like this one..