Music Review: Bright Eyes - "The People's Key" (2011)

The Bright Eyes album "The People's Key" is something I chose at random to listen to. I am not all too familiar with the band or the lead singer Conor Oberst, though it seems like Bright Eyes fans really think everyone should be familiar with him. Let's see how genius he really is, remembering there is a thin line between an artist and a fartist.


Right here in this paragraph forming is where my song recommendations would begin on a music album review. While the opening track "Firewall" could have been good, it ultimately was ruined by the creepy intro, which was good creepy, but not as a part of the song itself. '˜Shell Games" likewise got me interested for a portion of the track, but then lost my interest as well. Overall, I'll remain in the dark on the world of Bright Eyes and Conor Oberst because I did not find any songs on "The People's Key" that I really could get behind. "Ladder Song" would make for a decent poem read on a page though.

The following are my notes on each song from the Bright Eyes album "The People's Key."

"Firewall": Background music floats behind a man preaching on about reptile people and negative energy in the universe and evil people of the fourth dimension, or something. The guys says "okay" after a lot of his lines, reminds me of the counselor from "South Park," which kills the creepy vibe that seems to be the intention. The band does actual begin to sing lyrics after some time of this, but I pretty much feel the music track and the preacher spiel should have been separated, one being an intro to the album if one desired, the other being a song if so desired. The song is has a nice, slow, jangle of a groove to it, light your cigarettes and watch the reptile people walk by to the fourth dimension I guess.

"Shell Games": This song was good and dramatic out of the gates, nice pace, but then around a minute and half in the song changes gears and speeds up a bit, which I did not like at first, it grew on me, but then after the first run through of verses at that speed and into the breakdown I got bored. So, had me for the first minute and thirty-ish seconds.

"Jejune Stars": This sounds like a lot of stuff I hear on the radio these days and I hate most of what I hear on the radio. Bright pop rock, dull.

"Approximate Sunlight": A nice song to lay down in bed with, quiet, slow, methodic, mumbles of words being transmitted into the background, goodnight.

"Haile Selassie": Nothing about this song makes it stand out for me to really make any commentary. It sounds like Bright Eyes playing some music and the singer yakking on, half singing the lyrics, while the guitar play was almost a nice change of pace, ultimately it falls into the same dull zone as Jejune Stars, though duller.

"A Machine Spiritual (In The People's Key)": The singer's voice is starting to be an echo of monotone to my ears.

"Triple Spiral": This sounds like a song in the key of Weezer.

"Beginner's Mind": Again with the echo monotone, though this time there is more of a goat in his voice; baaaa. The first two songs of the album set a mood that I tried to dig, but this one is just colliding in with the other sounds and I've decided to quit digging and will just smash my face with the shovel to pass the time instead.

"Ladder Song": Decent poem. I am of the opinion that the singing and music actually hurt the piece, even though musically it is strong on the two lines ending with "friends of mine" and "friend of mine," but the construction of it being played as a song is evident ala it does not feel natural, more processed, whereas reading this as a poem might be interesting to me.

"One For You, One For Me": One for you, none for me, thank you. I'm not going to be Bright Eyes fan anytime soon, give me some Placebo instead.