Bright Eyes – “Five Dice, All Threes” Indie Exclusive

Description

“Five Dice, All Threes” is a record of uncommon intensity and tenderness, communal exorcism and personal excavation. These are, of course, qualitiesthat fans have come to expect from Bright Eyes, nearly three decades intotheir career. The tight-knit band of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and NateWalcott tends to operate in distinct sweeping movements: each unique in it’ssound and story but unified by a sense of ambition and ever-growingemotional stakes. Thistime around, the band invites such like-minded voices onto the record withthem, with notable guest appearances from Cat Power (“All Threes”), TheNational’s Matt Berninger (“The Time I Have Left”), and Alex Levine, thefrontman of the New York punk band The So So Glos, who co-wrote severalsongs and shares a climactic verse in the surging “Rainbow Overpass.”When they hit the studio with Oberst’s longtime bandmates-the multiinstrumentalist and producer Mike Mogis, the keyboardist and arranger NateWalcott-they opted for a fast-paced approach that drew inspiration fromformative influences like The Replacements and Frank Black. On one level, “Five Dice, All Threes” may be the most funalbum in the Bright Eyes catalog, filled with singalong hooks and buzzingperformances. And yet, sitting alongside these adrenalized rockers that soundbeamed in directly from the garage, you will find contemplative, psychedelicmaterial like the heartbreaking “Tiny Suicides” and “All Threes,” a song whosejazzy piano solo and free-associative lyrics feel totally unprecedented in theBright Eyes catalog.