Bright Eyes Announce 1st Album In 4 Years & Share Video For Single ‘Bells & Whistles’

Bright Eyes will issue a new album, Five Dice, All Threes, on September 20 via Dead Oceans. The band from Omaha, Nebraska shared the video for lead single “Bells And Whistles.”

Five Dice, All Threes is Bright Eyes’ — Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott — first album in four years following 2020’s Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was. The latter was Bright Eyes’ first studio album since 2011.

Produced by Bright Eyes, Five Dice, All Threes includes guest spots from Cat Power on “All Threes” and The National’s Matt Berninger on “The Time I Have Left.” So So Glos’ frontman Alex Orange Drink co-wrote several songs on the album and appears on “Rainbow Overpass.”

Press materials for Five Dice, All Threes detailed Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst’s contributions on album:

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.

“For whatever reason, I was born with a brain that’s preoccupied with that kind of thing,” Oberst said of his penchant for darker subject matter. “When I was young, there was a performative aspect to it, which got reflected back at me. Now I’m at a point where I don’t care what the reaction is going to be. Before it was a little out of my hands —- I didn’t know how to write if it wasn’t specific to my actual life. Now I do it by choice.”

“I think [Five Dice, All Threes] revisits the spirit of our older records,” Walcott added. “There is a real quality of chaos and ecstatic urgency in the performances.”

Case in point, lead single “Bells And Whistles,” which arrived with a music video “featuring many of our Omaha friends,” the band wrote in a social media post, along with performance footage. Watch the Josh Boone-directed visual below:

Bright Eyes also confirmed tour dates in support of Five Dice, All Threes. The band will perform a few shows in the United States in September and October before heading to Europe for a run of concerts in November. Tickets go on sale on Friday, June 28.