Music Evaluation: Vivid Eyes’ ‘5 Cube, All Threes’ contemplates demise, the Mets and rather more
Vivid Eyes’ new album is a sound and phrase collage: confessional but opaque, intimate but anthemic — dense and dizzying and darkish, but catchy and fascinating.
“5 Cube, All Threes,” which shall be launched Friday, is the trio’s first album of recent songs since 2020. Frontman Conor Oberst’s acquainted, distinctive punk-folk tremolo serves because the aural and religious anchor.
“I hate the protest singer gazing me within the mirror,” he sings on “Hate.”
Oberst is nice at his job, although, as are his bandmates. Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott present ingenious accompaniment on devices starting from banjo and pedal metal to synthesizer and celeste. Electrical guitars drenched in pedal results are distinguished within the lo-fi however intricate sonic patchwork, as is film dialogue and a cube recreation.
Oberst had a hand in all of the compositions, with assist from Walcott and Alex Levine of the So So Glos. They draw from punk, energy pop and basic rock, with sprinkles of jazz and hip-hop. It is an appropriately expansive setting for discourses on discontent, disillusion and demise.
The album is just not as relentlessly heavy as that sounds. The primary music sports activities a whistling introduction worthy of Disney, and a few of Oberst’s observations are equally playful.
“You shouldn’t place bets on the New York Mets,” he sings on “Bells and Whistles.” Grim contemplations about mortality on “The Time I Have Left” are leavened by an ironic singalong verse that goes, “Sha la la la la la,” though a vocal contribution from the Nationwide’s Matt Berninger’s baritone ensures the temper doesn’t get too shiny.
The tunnel on the finish of the sunshine is a recurring subject. Cat Energy’s ethereal backing vocals distinguish “All Threes,” which laments the toll of time, as does “Tiny Suicides,” which ends with sobbing. On the ultimate music, “Tin Soldier Boy,” Walcott’s trumpet serenades Oberst’s repeated reminder that our days are numbered. Level taken.
Different material contains Bud Mild beer and the Bible, blown audio system and used amplifiers, cracks within the coronary heart, unhealthy goals, synthetic intelligence, ageing and the climate.
“Sizzling in LA tonight,” Oberst sings on “Actual Really feel 105°,” seemingly referencing final week. He’s a city crier with the most recent information, striving to make sense of all of it.
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