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Pilgrims hitchhike to Zion, holographic girls disappear in theme parks and villagers loot museums. Pan-dimensional beings watch on with the universe poised between annihilation and rebirth.
This can mean only one of two things. Either the apocalyptic visions of an obscure and terrifying religion have come true, or you’re listening to Bright Eyes’ new album.
'The People’s Key' sees Omaha’s prodigal son returning to his favourite song writing alias after a four year hiatus. The results are a far cry from 2007’s 'Casadega'. The barnyard backdrops of pedal steel and fiddle are gone, replaced by a mix of distorted beats, synths and plaintive strumming that sound, if anything, more like a synthesis of 2004’s Jekyll and Hyde twin releases, 'I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning' and 'Digital Ash in a Digital Urn'.
However, most of Bright Eyes mainstays have gone nowhere. Oberst’s ear for a chord progression, his lyrical obsessions and trademark vocal delivery remain consistent. The emotionally charged Ladder Song, for instance, find his voice quavering like the needle of a Geiger counter caught in the nuclear blast his songs so often envisage.
Most of the album is conducted in a more triumphant mood. Obrest started attracting attention as a musician when aged 14 and these songs still carry a spirit of adolescence about them. Not that they lack maturity. The modulations in 'Approximated Sunlight', for example, are clearly the work of someone who knows their way around a composition. It’s more that every song is so robustly uncynical, unafraid to go all out.
The only criticism you can really level at the album is that it occasionally tires too hard. Oberst sometimes stretches his arrangements past braking point or, in his quest for striking imagery, forces a clumsy rhyme, “the way a star’s born/ looks just like a blood orange” being a particularly guilty example. But hey, you have to buy a ticket to win the raffle and The People’s Key boasts a host of winners. 'Haile Salassie' is superb and, as I listen to 'Shell Games', I know that somewhere out there more than one person is going about their day unaware that their soon-to-be-all-time-favourite-song is approaching its release date. Pop gems, 'Jejune Stars' and 'Triple Spiral' provide other highlights but even the lesser tracks have deep reserves of charm, losing tickets if you will, turned origami.
