Bright Eyes: Five Dice, All Threes

Bright Eyes’ latest album delivers a return to their mellower, acoustic roots, but despite some quality arrangements and catchy hooks, the songwriting leaves much to be desired. Across the album, the trio comprising Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott explore aging, the difficulties imbued with success, and the plight of the planet. The songs that soar, like “El Capitan” and the rousing “Trains Still Run on Time,” are reminders of the band’s vision, but there are too many that don’t quite deliver. Bright Eyes often incorporates spoken audio samples throughout their albums, and while Five Dice is no different, these clips tend to detract rather than enhance. Functioning more as a shortcut for invoking meaning, they feel lazy this time around, like a way of generating intrigue instead of writing something actually interesting. Oberst, who is arguably one of the most celebrated lyricists of the 2000s, often side-steps any real compelling commentary for more simplistic writing, and with some truly eye roll worthy lyrics (“Hate,” “Bells and Whistles”), one has to wonder if his heart was in it at all. The production is fine but certainly doesn’t offer anything new and the superb arrangements can’t save a disappointing and rather shallow offering from Oberst and co.