Bright Eyes Five Dice, All Threes Vinyl LP 2024

Tracklist:

SIDE A
1. Five Dice
2. Bells and Whistles
3. El Capitan
4. Bas Jan Ader
5. Tiny Suicides
SIDE B
6. All Threes
7. Rainbow Overpass
8. Hate
9. Real Feel 105°
SIDE C
10. Spun Out
11. Trains Still Run on
Time
12. The Time I Have
Left
13. Tin Soldier Boy

Five Dice, All Threes is a record of uncommon intensity and tenderness,
communal exorcism and personal excavation. These are, of course, qualities
that fans have come to expect from Bright Eyes, nearly three decades into
their career. The tight-knit band of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate
Walcott tends to operate in distinct sweeping movements: each unique in its
sound and story but unified by a sense of ambition and ever-growing
emotional stakes. Even with this rich history behind them, these new songs
exude a visceral thrill like nothing they have attempted before. Oberst has
always sung in a voice that conveys a sense of life-or-death gravity. At times
throughout Five Dice, All Threes, you may feel worried for him; other times, he
may seem like the only one with the clarity to get us out of this mess.
On the self-produced album, Bright Eyes embrace the elusive quality that
has made them so enduring and influential across generations and genres,
bringing their homespun sound from an Omaha bedroom to devoted
audiences around the world.

In Oberst’s songwriting lies a promise that our
loneliest thoughts and feelings can take on grander shapes when passed
between friends, blasted through speakers, or shouted among crowds. This
time around, the band invites such like-minded voices onto the record with
them, with notable guest appearances from Cat Power (“All Threes”), The
National’s Matt Berninger (“The Time I Have Left”), and Alex Orange Drink, the
frontman of the New York punk band The So So Glos, who co-wrote several
songs and shares a climactic verse in the surging “Rainbow Overpass.”
When they hit the studio with Oberst’s longtime bandmates—the multi-
instrumentalist and producer Mike Mogis, the keyboardist and arranger Nate
Walcott—they opted for a fast-paced approach that drew inspiration from
formative influences like The Replacements and Frank Black. They sought
textures that burst from the mix like gnarly splashes of paint on a blank
canvas; they opted for first takes and spontaneous decisions.

Five Dice, All Threes thrashes and squirms and resists classification. In the brilliant expanse
of “El Capitan,” they blend a galloping rhythm you might find in a Johnny Cash
standard with a swell of funereal horns, shouted vocals, and lyrics that read
like a sobering farewell between twin souls. “So they’re burning you an effigy,”
Oberst sings. “Well, that happens to me all the time!”
For every striking turn in his lyrics, the band knows just how to complement
him. On one level, Five Dice, All Threes may be the most fun album in the
Bright Eyes catalog, filled with singalong hooks and buzzing performances.
And yet, sitting alongside these adrenalized rockers that sound beamed in
directly from the garage, you will find contemplative, psychedelic material
like the heartbreaking “Tiny Suicides” and “All Threes,” a song whose jazzy
piano solo and free-associative lyrics feel totally unprecedented in the Bright
Eyes catalog.

As per usual, the music comes loaded with subtext that invites deep
listening—the signature touch of a band who has always honored the album as
its own exalted work of art. In the game of threes, the titular move would
indicate a perfect roll. Perfection, however, means something different in the
world of Bright Eyes, where our flaws are what grants us authority and finding
meaning is only possible if we bear witness to the dark, winding journey to
get there. On Five Dice, All Threes, Bright Eyes embrace these beliefs with
music that feels thrillingly alive, as if we were all in the room with them,
shouting along and gaining the strength to move forward together. It doesn’t
just sound like classic Bright Eyes. It sounds like their future, too.

Features Chan Marshall (Cat Power) and Matt Berninger (The National)