Bright Eyes - The People's Key

The best, most interesting artists always keep us guessing. For Conor Oberst and his Bright Eyes morphing amalgam of producer and fellow Monsters of Folk alum Mike Mogus and multi-instrumentalist Nathaniel Wolcott -- along with a handful of Omaha indie contributors -- their seventh (and perhaps final, according to Oberst) album The Peoples Key (February 15, Saddle Creek) is a distinct stylistic move from 2007's rustic-sounding Taladega. "I wanted to make a record that was modern-sounding and steer clear of some of my tendencies, melodically," say Oberst. "We’re over the Americana, rootsy, whatever that sound is."

Led by by the heavy keyboards and riff-rock guitar chords of the anthemic "Shell Games", the key to Oberst's Key may be simply the desire to make a more straightforward statement, lyrically as well as musically. "We very much wanted it to be rocking", he says, "and, for lack of a better term, contemporary, or modern." Oberst's recent political activism, particularly in the opposition of recent immigration laws (which he describes as "xenophobic, barbaric nationalism"), sets the tone for the album from a lyrical perspective. "The album is about humanity. That’s sort of the crux of that matter — we’re all human beings and these imaginary lines and borders are really silly when you think about work and families and the need for people to survive and carry on with their lives."

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Bright Eyes - "Shell Games" (from the album The People's Key)

Track list for The People’s Key:

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

Additional Bright Eyes players on The People’s Key: Andy LeMaster, (Now It’s Overhead), Matt Maginn (Cursive), Carla Azar (Autolux), Clark Baechle (The Faint), Shane Aspegren (The Berg Sans Nipple), Laura Burhenn (The Mynabirds) and Denny Brewer (Refried Ice Cream).