The eagerly anticipated latest and final Bright Eyes album, The People’s Key, is streaming on NPR two weeks before its release.
I had heard four songs before today, and loved one of them, “Shell Game” although it was lyrically obtuse. The others were a touch flipped out for my tastes.
So now that I’ve heard the entire album, it sure hits me as being a much better idea. The sound is a touch too busy, and Conor will never be 18 again, the concepts are not merely weird, they are also silly. But song for song, it seems to coalese. Even stuff that shouldn’t is better in context.
So I think I’ve been underestimating it!
Certainly, “Haile Selassie” sounds better following “Approximated Sunlight”. After the typical experimental “Firewall” to open the album, “Shell Game” leaps out at you.
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/30/133278431/first-listen-bright-eyes-the-peoples-key