''eyeland'' is the fourth full-length studio concept album by American indie folk band

the Low Anthem The Low Anthem is a band from Providence, Rhode Island, formed in 2006 by friends Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky. The current lineup consists of Knox Miller (vocals, guitars, trumpets, saws), Prystowsky (vocals, drums, double basses, synths ...

, released on June 17, 2016 on Washington Square Records - an imprint of

Razor & Tie Razor & Tie was an American entertainment company that consisted of a record label and a music publishing company. It was established in 1990 by Craig Balsam and Cliff Chenfeld. Based in New York City (with additional offices in Los Angeles and ...

, of

Concord Bicycle Music Alchemy Copyrights, Limited liability company, LLC, trade name, doing business as Concord, is an Privately held company, independent American music company. It develops, manages and acquires sound recordings, music publishing rights, theatrical p ...

Recording

The album was recorded in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

Columbus Theatre Columbus Theatre may refer to: * Columbus Theatre (New York City) * Columbus Theatre (Providence, Rhode Island) *Teatro Colón The Teatro Colón () is a historic opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera ...

, over a four-year time span, in the band's own recording studio which they built during the recording and eventually named after the album, Eyeland Recording Studio. ''eyeland'' is a cerebral psych-kidnapping noir for Jorge Luis Borges, and features dense sound collage elements in the arrangements. Mastering engineer

Bob Ludwig Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...

worked on the album. During the recording of ''Eyeland'', the Low Anthem became involved with the plans to re-open the theater in 2012. The band were founding members of the Columbus Cooperative, which runs the theater's programming, such as concerts and film screenings.

Tour and van accident

In July 2016, the Low Anthem were involved in a traffic accident after their tour van was run off the road outside of Washington D.C. Band members Ben Knox Miller, Florence Wallis, and Bryan Minto and the band's sound engineer and tour documentarian received minor injuries from the accident, while Jeff Prystowsky had a severe concussion and was hospitalized. The van and most of the band's instruments and gear were destroyed in the accident. The remainder of the tour was canceled following the accident. The album was commissioned into a script for a play by

Trinity Repertory Company Trinity Repertory Company (commonly abbreviated as Trinity Rep) is a non-profit regional theater located at 201 Washington Street in Providence, Rhode Island. The theater is a member of the League of Resident Theatres. Founded in 1963, the the ...

that is currently in workshop for full-production in 2018.

Reception

The review aggregator website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave ''eyeland'' a generally favorable rating of 67 out of 100 based on 11 independent music critic reviews. The Line of Best Fit, a prominent UK blogger, rated it 8.5 and said, "The Low Anthem's eyeland is a triumph of forward thinking."

Track listing

# ''"in eyeland" : 4:42'' # "her little cosmos" : 3:21 # "the pepsi moon" : 3:41 # "ozzie": 3:27 # "waved the neon seaweed" : 4:35 # "behind the airport mirror": 2:52 # in the air hockey fire" : 4:54 # "wzgddrmtnwrdz" : 4:10 # "am i the dream or am i the dreamer" : 5:59 # "dream killer": 2:57 # "the circular ruins in euphio" : 2:14

Personnel

The Low Anthem *Ben Knox Miller *Jeff Prystowsky *Florence Grace Wallis *Bryan Minto Guest artists *Tyler Osborne *Jocie Adams *Mike Irwin *Andy Davis *Chris Erway

References

{{Authority control 2017 albums