GENRE: Rock

LABEL: Dead Oceans

REVIEWED: 12 October, 2025

RATING: 5.7/10

Bright Eyes’ Kids Table feels like a curated appendix to the Five Dice, All Threes era — eight songs drawn from those sessions that trade the full-album sweep for smaller, sharper vignettes. The EP is formally tidy: release and track details point to a September 26, 2025 arrival and include songs such as “Dyslexic Palindrome,” the ska-tinged single “1st World Blues,” and a Lucinda Williams cover, “Sharp Cutting Wings (Song to a Poet).” 

Lyrically, Conor Oberst revisits his reliable obsessions — childhood metaphors, nostalgia, political frustration — but here the lines sometimes read as revisitations rather than revelations. Pitchfork’s appraisal captures that tension: moments of vivid phrasing are undercut by passages that feel weighed down by obvious rhymes and familiar images, producing an overall impression of uneven payoff. 

Musically the EP is more interesting. The band experiments: “1st World Blues” channels ska energy with brisk horns and snare that push Bright Eyes into less expected territory, and guest turns (notably Alynda Segarra/Hurray for the Riff Raff and Leslie Stevens) add warmth and contrast that lift several tracks above the baseline material. These collaborative sparks are the EP’s chief pleasures. 

Fan reaction is split , some praise the careful craft and intimacy of these b-sides, others echo critiques about lyrical stagnation — making Kids Table feel like a record for devoted listeners rather than a gateway for newcomers. As a companion piece it’s satisfying in parts; as a statement it rarely surpasses Bright Eyes’ best.