In 2020, Bright Eyes released Down In The Weeds Where The World Once Was, a fittingly apocalyptic album for the weird year. Today, the band is announcing its follow-up, Five Dice, All Threes, out September 20. The lead single, “Bells And Whistles,” is out now with a music video shot in Omaha and directed by Josh Boone.

“This is a song about the many little details in life that can seem insignificant or frivolous or temporary at the time but eventually end up forming your destiny,” Conor Oberst explained. “And it’s also kind of a whistle while you work scenario.”

“Bells And Whistles” was recently teased with posters all over New York with the lyrics “Zach’s staggering down Bleeker Street/ The label asked for a meet & greet.” The jaunty track has other references to the Big Apple, but also to LA, Princess Diana, and more.

Five Dice, All Threes is self-produced and features Cat Power, the National’s Matt Berninger, and the So So Glos’ Alex Orange Drink. The album abounds with dark subject matter, about which Oberst said, “For whatever reason, I was born with a brain that’s preoccupied with that kind of thing. 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 it revisits the spirit of our older records,” Nate Walcott added about the LP. “There is a real quality of chaos and ecstatic urgency in the performances.”

Since Down In The Weeds Where The World Once Was, Bright Eyes launched the Companions project in which they reissued their back catalog with accompanying EPs. Watch the video for “Bells And Whistles” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Five Dice”
02 “Bells And Whistles”
03 “El Capitan”
04 “Bas Jan Ader”
05 “Tiny Suicides”
06 “All Threes”
07 “Rainbow Overpass”
08 “Hate”
09 “Real Feel 105°”
10 “Spun Out”
11 “Trains Still Run On Time”
12 “The Time I Have Left”
13 “Tin Soldier Boy”

TOUR DATES:
09/19 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
09/21 – Chicago, IL @ Riot Fest
09/22 – Omaha, NE @ Steelhouse Omaha
10/11 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
10/12 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether
10/13 – Las Vegas, NV @ Best Friends Forever Music Festival
11/10 – Wolverhampton, UK @ Wulfrun Hall
11/11 – London, UK @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
11/12 – Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Doornroosje
11/13 – Ghent, Belgium @ Ha Concerts
11/14 – Cologne, Germany @ Carlswerk Victoria
11/15 – Berlin, Germany @ Tempodrom
11/16 – Weissenhauser Strand, Germany @ Rolling Stone Beach
11/18 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Fållan
11/19 – Oslo, Norway @ Parkteatret

Five Dice, All Threes is out 9/20 on Dead Oceans.