Its been nice to see him emerge from the emo poster boy wunderkid, to a more mature artist over the years. His lyrics keep getting stronger and now he has cast off the screamy over emoting that plagued his early efforts such as Fevers And Mirrors. He doesn't need to shout now his words are more focused and assured. Mind you, he was only a kid then (he released his first lp aged 13) , and he's still young now.
Anyway, the new album, The People's Key, released on 15th February ( Oberst's 31st birthday), is a return to form after the slightly underwhelming Cassadaga. It is perhaps his most accessible record to date, although it is interspersed thoughout with the ramblings of an acid casualty! A characteristically perverse contrast. I still dont think he will ever surpass Lifted... for sheer emotional force and rawness, and I feel he has perhaps traded a little emotional immediacy for his new smoother, slightly airbrushed sound. However, these are the minor cavils of an obsessive and his new stuff is eminently listenable (thats got to be a good thing, right?!), and lyrically/ vocally he goes from strength to strength.
It sounds like he could turn his pen to any subject now and pay it ample justice, as he did so beautifully on "Land Locked Blues", in Im Wide Awake Its Morning, where he tackled the Iraq war whilst avoiding didacticism and political diatribe, with sublime results. His songs have a new kind of spiritual dimenson; "let jesus hang and buddha sit," and "come fire, come karma, come water" on Jejune Stars, off the new album. This fits in suprisingly well with the characteristically introspective Bright Eyes we know, making him seem slightly less solipsistic.
All in all I reckon he's finally beginning to justify the Dylan comparisons, and this is his poptastic Blonde On Blonde. Here is my favourite song from the new record... from the sweaty front row
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