( RollingStone.com ) -- It 's been almost a decade since Bright Eyes ' `` Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil , Keep Your Ear to the Ground , '' the epic 2002 album that established Conor Oberst as the pain-strumming poet of emo and the newest of the New Dylans . But the 22-year-old had n't asked for either gig . So Oberst spent the 2000s abjuring big statements , choosing to scale down his sound , bum around North America and try to figure himself out . `` I 've taken some comfort . . . `` he sings on Bright Eyes ' first album in nearly four years , `` knowing I do n't have to be an exception . '' The latest dispatch from Planet Conor weaves the weird knowledge he 's accrued over the years into a rich , sprawling , fragmented record . It 's got elements of the hazy synth rock of 2005 's `` Digital Ash in a Digital Urn '' and echoes of his two recent , rootsy solo albums . But being Bright Eyes again mainly means a break from Solo Conor 's rustic tranquility and a return to the bruised- angel indie rock of his earliest albums . Oberst brings it all back home by recording in his native Omaha with Bright Eyes ' other two permanent members -- multi-instrumentalist Nate Walcott and producer Mike Mogis -- plus local pals from Cursive and the Faint . Gallery : Random Notes , Rock 's Hottest Photos . Oberst 's lyrics explore a mysticism he 's been messing with since 2007 's `` Cassadaga . '' On `` A Machine Spiritual ( In the 'People 's Key ' ) , '' he 's a futurist seer , tweeting happily from the end of time : `` History bows and it steps aside/In the jungle there are columns of purple light/We are starting over . '' The album is full of nods to Rastafarianism , including references to `` one love '' and Zion . Oberst says he loves reggae 's symbolism and anti-imperialist spirit , and throughout `` People 's Key '' he uses Rasta vibrations as an emotional power source . On `` Haile Selassie , '' through a haze of epic images , the supernatural force `` calling me home like Haile Selassie '' ends up being a girl : `` I was swimming with you in that cenote the heavens made with black fire . '' Oberst 's newfound jones for Jah is n't even the trippiest thing about `` The People 's Key . '' Several tracks feature the spoken-word ramblings of Randy Brewer , a Texas musician Oberst met on the road . Brewer 's sermonettes -- about the road to enlightenment , our alien ancestors and time as a construct -- work surprisingly well leading into the gently lifting orchestrations of `` Firewall '' or closing out the prayerful electro-folk of `` One for You , One for Me . '' Bright Eyes : King of Indie Rock . Giving a chunk of your record over to some random old-timer 's bullshit is a classic Oberst move , a way of undercutting the aura of importance people have foisted on his music since he was in high school . It 's especially shrewd because `` The People 's Key '' contains some of his most weighty songwriting -- the head-clearing clamor of `` Haile Selassie '' or the somber `` Approximate Sunlight , '' where Oberst ruefully sings , `` It 's been said we 're post-everything . '' His greatest quality is that he refuses to be post-anything . He manages to be everything at once : folkie and punk , old soul and eternal boy , high-plains drifter and hipster heartthrob . He 's busy being born again every time he strums a chord . Copyright © 2010 Rolling Stone .
It 's been almost a decade since Bright Eyes ' epic 2002 album was released . It established Conor Maynard as the newest of the New Dylans . Maynard spent the years making big changes , choosing to scale down his sound .