Bright Eyes - Haile Selassie

Here comes another audible teaser from Bright Eyes’ forthcoming The People’s Key-full length in the shape of a track which is titled after former Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie. The song is in accordance with the album’s overall focus on space, time, humanity and existence. Some historical data is given by the good folks over at Spinner.

Ethiopia’s Emperor from 1930 to 1974, the actual Haile Selassie was not only a defining figure in African history but he also transcended his political post to, perhaps unexpectedly, become a central religious figure in Jamaica. The Rastafari movement considers him to be the Biblical messiah, the son of God here to lead followers into a new golden age. Neither he nor the band’s frontman Connor Oberst can actually lay claim to doing that, but both, in their own way, have gotten us just a little bit closer. As Oberst sings on the track, “I’ve seen stranger things happen before.”

The People’s Key is set to be released on February 15 via Saddle Creek. You can grab your own copy of the tuneful “Haile Selassie” via the widget below.