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Contents: The Omaha-based trio Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, Nathaniel Walcott) have finally reunited. Their 10th album, "Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was," their first in nine and a half years, has been released. ??Produced by: Bright Eyes ??Participating Musicians: Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), John Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age, The Mars Volta), and others. Approximately 10 years after their last show in Honolulu on November 21, 2011, Bright Eyes will play their latest single "Mariana Trench" on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on June 22, 2020. The band released new material in January 2020 and a new song, "Persona Non Grata," in March. Following the release of "Forced Convalescence" and "One And Done," it was announced that a new album, "Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was," would be released on August 21, 2020, via Dead Oceans, along with this fourth single, "Mariana Trench." "Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was," as its title and thesis suggest, functions globally with an apocalyptic sense of unease that permeates the entire album. On a personal level, it signifies the act of rediscovering precious things that have grown too large to be recognized, rooted in one's own "soil" of memory. And for Conor Oberst, returning to Bright Eyes has a similar meaning. He couldn't actually go back to the past, and even if there was no happy ending, he still had a new reality to grapple with. After releasing their ninth album, "The People's Key," in 2011, Bright Eyes went on an unofficial, extended hiatus. Since then, the three core members of the band?Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nathaniel Walcott?had been working on their own projects and collaborations. Meanwhile, Oberst and Mogis lived next door to each other in their hometown of Omaha, and Walcott lived just 15 minutes from Oberst's house on the East Side of Los Angeles (where Oberst had done most of the work on his recent solo album and the Better Oblivion Community Center album). The three were close friends, and their projects sometimes overlapped. So, Bright Eyes naturally reunited. In 2017, at a Christmas party at Walcott's house, Oberst proposed restarting the band. Mogis quickly joined. "Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was" is Bright Eyes' most collaborative work to date. It all started with demos written in Omaha and at Walcott's house. Furthermore, 'Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was' seems like a fusion of past Bright Eyes works. The use of symphonies is reminiscent of Walcott's orchestral arrangements in 'Cassadaga,' while the percussive elements evoke 'Digital Ash in a Digital Urn.' Oberst's vocals and the underlying folk songwriting are similar to those of 'Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground' and 'I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.' The acoustic guitar sound traces back to Mogis's production on a 4-track recording Oberst made 25 years ago. Through recording sessions at ARC Studios in Omaha, Electro-Vox in Los Angeles, and Capitol Studios, also in Los Angeles, the trio has created an experimental, ambitious, and original album. The rhythm section was handled by Jon Theodore (Mars Volta, Queens of the Stone Age, One Day as a Lion) and Flea of ??Red Hot Chili Peppers. [TRACKLIST] 1. Pageturner?fs Rag 2. Dance And Sing 3. Just Once In The World 4. Mariana Trench 5. One and Done 6. Pan and Broom 7. Stairwell Song 8. Persona Non Grata 9. Tilt-A-Whirl 10. Hot Car in the Sun 11. Forced Convalescence 12. To Death?fs Heart (In Three Parts) 13. Calais To Dover 14. Comet Song Media Reviews and More Omaha-based trio Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, Nathaniel Walcott) have finally reunited. Their 10th album, their first in nine and a half years. (C)RS
