''The People's Key'' is the ninth studio album by American band Bright Eyes. The album was recorded in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

at ARC Studios, produced by

Mike Mogis Mike Mogis is an American producer/mixer/engineer and multi-instrumentalist who owns ARC Studios (Another Recording Company) in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha. Mike, along with his brother A. J. Mogis, A.J. Mogis, founded Presto! Recording Stud ...

, and engineered by Mogis and

Andy LeMaster Andy LeMaster is an American musician, songwriter, engineer, and producer from Athens, Georgia. Now It's Overhead is the primary project for his own songwriting, while he also releases music under his own name and contributes as a co-writer on v ...

. The album was released on February 15, 2011, lead singer

Conor Oberst Conor Mullen Oberst (born February 15, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his work in Bright Eyes (band), Bright Eyes. He has also played in several other bands, including Desaparecidos (band), Desaparecidos, the Faint (previou ...

's 31st birthday, by

Saddle Creek Records Saddle Creek Records is an American record label based in Omaha, Nebraska. Started as a college class project on entrepreneurship, the label was founded by Mike Mogis and Justin Oberst in 1993 (as Lumberjack Records). Mogis soon turned over his ...

. Prior to its official release, the album was available to stream online in its entirety, as part of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's "First Listen" series. The album features guest artists

Now It's Overhead Now It's Overhead was an indie rock band fronted by singer/songwriter Andy LeMaster and based in Athens, Georgia. Their first album, a self-titled collection of songs LeMaster wrote over a period of two years in the late 1990s, quickly rose from ...

Matt Maginn Matt Maginn is a musician from Omaha, Nebraska. He plays bass guitar in the indie-rock band Cursive and is a frequent contributor on a number of Bright Eyes records. He was also a founding member of Slowdown Virginia. He also helps run Team Lo ...

Cursive Cursive (also known as joined-up writing) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionality and m ...

Carla Azar Carla Azar (June 15, 1972) is an American drummer from Huntsville, Alabama and member of the band Autolux. She also plays guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, and sings. Azar played drums on Jack White's albums ''Blunderbuss'', ''Lazaretto'', and ' ...

Autolux Autolux is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 2001. The group formed as a trio and have released three full-length albums, ''Future Perfect'' (2004), '' Transit Transit'' (2010) and '' Pussy's Dead'' (2016). T ...

Clark Baechle Clark Alan Baechle (born April 21, 1981) is an American founding member of the Omaha-based electronic rock band The Faint, along with his brother, Todd Fink. Although he is primarily known for playing drums, he also sings backing vocals and is ...

The Faint The Faint is an American indie rock band. Formed in Omaha, Nebraska, the band consists of Todd Fink, Graham Ulicny, Dapose and Clark Baechle. The Faint was originally known as Norman Bailer and included Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes (band), Brig ...

, Shane Aspegren of The Berg Sans Nipple, Laura Burhenn of

The Mynabirds The Mynabirds are an American indie pop band founded by singer-songwriter and pianist Laura Burhenn, who was previously one half of the Washington, D.C., indie duo Georgie James. Burhenn formed the Mynabirds in 2009, and shortly after signed t ...

, and Denny Brewer of Refried Ice Cream. The lyrics make mention of

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or ''Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles#Lij, Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, Rege ...

, the

Lion of Judah The Lion of Judah (, ) is a Jewish national and cultural symbol, traditionally regarded as the symbol of the tribe of Judah. The association between the Judahites and the lion can first be found in the blessing given by Jacob to his fourth son ...

and I and I; all things associated with

Rastafari Rastafari is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion. There is no central authori ...

. The album was reissued by

Dead Oceans Dead Oceans, Inc., is an American independent record label founded in 2006 and based in Bloomington, Indiana. History On June 30, 2006, Phil Waldorf founded Dead Oceans with Chris Swanson. Swanson suggested the name Dead Oceans, which came fro ...

alongside a six-track companion EP on June 16, 2023.

Packaging

According to designer

Zack Nipper Zack Nipper is an American artist from Omaha, Nebraska. He has designed several album covers by bands such as Bright Eyes, Criteria, Georgie James and Desaparecidos. Zack won "Best Recording Package" for his work on Bright Eyes' '' Cassadaga'' a ...

, the basic idea for the "wall of fire" design came from Conor Oberst, who wanted it to be "visually striking". The design was created using cut paper, similar to the cover for ''

Every Day and Every Night ''Every Day and Every Night'' is an Extended play, EP by American indie rock band Bright Eyes (band), Bright Eyes. It became the 30th release by Saddle Creek Records on November 1, 1999. Conor Oberst references this album art in another of his ...

'', the first Bright Eyes release Nipper had worked on. Nipper stated that he "designed for vinyl first, then CD, and MP3 last, because that's the order in which viewing it matters." The first 50,000 copies of this album came with a limited-edition packaging similar to that of all copies of the LP record, in a 6-panel tri-fold die-cut digipak printed on iridescent foil, and including an O-card, full-color CD inner sleeve and a 20-page booklet. In January 2011, it was announced that The People's Key had won the

Best Art Vinyl Best Art Vinyl is an annual award that began in 2005. It celebrates artists and designers of album cover art. The nomination process begins in November and the winners are announced in January, and are exhibited at venues across the United Kingdo ...

award.

Critical reception

''The People's Key'' has received mixed to positive critical reception. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 70, based on 35 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

praised its smaller scale and gave the album 3 and a 1/2 out of 5 stars. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' gave the album 5 out of 10 and criticized the "impersonal" feel of the songs, yet praised "Ladder Song". ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'' gave the album 2 out of a possible 5 stars. ''No Ripcord'' gave the album a 6 out of 10 and commented, "There's not a lot fundamentally wrong with ''The People's Key''; it's just that we know Bright Eyes can do better." However, '' Drowned in Sound'' and ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' gave the album 9 out of 10 and 8 out of 10 respectively, with ''NME'' calling it a "sleek electro-tinged classic" and praising Oberst's more electric musical direction, saying it brought a "fresh strain of Bright Eyes record".

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 13 on the ''Billboard'' 200, and made it to number 7 on the Alternative Albums chart. ''The People's Key'' also reached number 46 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

Track listing

A limited edition deluxe edition contains MP3 file samples of various Saddle Creek artists.

Personnel

– vocals, guitars, pianos and keyboards *

– guitars, pedal steel, effects, programming and percussion *

Nate Walcott Nate Walcott (born March 6, 1978) is an American musical composer, arranger, pianist, keyboardist, and trumpeter. He has composed the scores for several feature-length films, including 2014's ''The Fault in Our Stars''. He is a member of the ba ...

– synthesizers, pianos, organs and Mellotron *Andy LeMaster – vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, guitar on tracks 4, 10, bass guitar on track 10 *Matt Maginn – bass guitar on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 *Carla Azar – drums, percussion on tracks 2, 6, 8 *Clark Baechle – drums on tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 *Shane Agsperen – drums on track 10, additional drums on track 3, additional percussion on track 2 *Laura Burhenn – vocals on tracks 4, 7, 8 *Denny Brewer – shamanic vocals

Charts

References

External links

www.conoroberst.com

NPR First Listen: Bright Eyes — ''The People's Key''
{{DEFAULTSORT:People's Key, The 2011 albums Bright Eyes (band) albums Saddle Creek Records albums Albums produced by Mike Mogis