According to MTV, Bright Eyes is currently wrapping up work on their next Saddle Creek album.

After a busy year which included political events, diversity awards and an indie-only live album, the frontman Conor Oberst is promising a different lyrical focus for the new album:

I don't think there's going to be any more overtly political stuff," Oberst said. "I mean, obviously, we need to have some kind of change in the mid-term elections and in the next presidential election, but when I sing the songs now, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. It's too easy.

Everyone knows we have an incompetent administration," he continued. "Back in 2003, 2004, it was different. The idea of going out now and hitting people over the head with it doesn't appeal to me [because] I feel that people are coming around."

The band, which includes Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott along with members of Sleater-Kinney, and drummer Janet Weiss and M. Ward released two albums in 2005, the electric Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and the more traditional country-influenced I'm Wide Awake It's Morning.