Bright Eyes crystallize going to the prom, experimenting with new SSRI medications and navigating the barriers to adulthood on Kids Table, a new eight-song EP arriving Sept. 26 from Dead Oceans.
The first single, “Dyslexic Palindrome,” features Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra, whose group has toured with Bright Eyes of late. “Alynda Segarra is one of the most soulful people I have ever encountered,” Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst says. “Everything that passes through them is haunted by the weary ghost of American music past. I have had the good fortune of recording and performing with them on many occasions and I am always blown away by Alynda’s ability to channel what is both intangible and universal. Seemingly walking along in a second line of skeletons. Blowing on a valiant horn. I know it sounds crazy but, yet, there Alynda is. Always so very present but with one foot on the other side.”
Kids Table also includes previous single “1st World Blues,” a cover of Lucinda Williams’ “Sharp Cutting Wings (Song to a Poet)” and lyrical nods to Clue‘s Mrs. Peacock, late Clash frontman Joe Strummer, Salman Rushdie and William Shakespeare. It’s the follow-up to 2024’s Five Dice, All Threes, which was the group’s first album in four years.
Bright Eyes are on a brief west coast tour that features an appearance on Saturday (Aug. 30) at Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival. Three shows in Singapore and Japan are on tap in November in December.
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