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Sit at the Kids Table. Go to prom. Try a new SSRI. Deface a mural. Flip

the mattress. Help a bird. Dissociate. Last vacation.

These landmark occasions are inscribed on the board-game-inspired

cover of the new Bright Eyes EP, Kids Table. And therein lies the

chiaroscuro of Bright Eyes' music, perpetually teetering between

rogue optimism and pragmatic despair. Following the band's 2024

visceral and hook-filled Five Dice, All Threes, the new EP exists as both

a partner-in-crime to that album, and a self-contained world all of it's

own.

While many of these new songs emerged from the same recording

sessions at Omaha's ARC Studios as Five Dice, they didn't all quite fit

the concise cohesion of that album. So it was always the plan of

Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott to find another seat for

these outliers at the proverbial kids table, "eaten off the ironing board

like we did at our big family holidays," jokes Oberst, in a nod to the

EP's cover art.

"Kids Table" and "Dyslexic Palindrome" both feature Hurray For The

Riff Raff's Alynda Segarra, a continued creative partnership following

the two bands' recent tours together and viral live version of Bright

Eyes fan-favorite, "Lua." And while a Bright Eyes ska song was likely

not on this year's bingo card (or game board), "1st World Blues,"

cowritten with Alex Orange Drink (So So Glos), makes a case for a

third wave of the genre, with it's biting takedown of contemporary

American civilization decline, propelled by gang vocals and an

infectious off-beat rhythm.

Cultural references both high and low-brow pepper the EP -

namechecking everyone from Salman Rushdie, Joe Strummer, and

Candace Bergen in "Victory City" and Shakespeare, Guy Fawkes, and

Mrs. Peacock from the classic boardgame 'Clue' in "Shakespeare In A

Nutshell."

But it's the cover of Lucinda Williams' 1980 track "Sharp Cutting

Wings (Song For A Poet)" that is really the heart of this collection.

Oberst and Williams share a clear musical commonality, both experts

at weaving together melancholy and hope. And in fact, following a

medical emergency in 2024 when Oberst was battling vocal problems

- it was the first thing he wanted to sing after his illness, once he was

able to use his voice again. "This was the song I felt like singing," says

Oberst, "I've just always loved it." It was a last-minute addition to the

EP that ultimately ties it all together, it's cautious optimism offering a

glimmer of light in the shadows of the collection, the shadows of a

fraying American dream, and the shadows cast across a family dinner

at the kids table.