The Avett Brothers take themselves to the brink in their new single "Back Into the Light." Readers can hear the song, from their forthcoming The Third Gleam album, above.

"Back Into the Light" is about those heavy daydreams. The verse lyrics focus on those moments in life when your thoughts and worries bring you down, but the chorus offers a glimmer of hope.

"Sometimes I don't see love in anything," Seth and Scott Avett sing. "But just when I surrender to my shadow / I snap out of it and step into the light / I step back into the light."

The Third Gleam is due out on Friday (Aug. 28). Recorded before both the novel coronavirus pandemic and conversations around racism and inequality in the United States began, the eight-song project nonetheless expresses emotions and themes that remain timely.

"The songs were not informed specifically by the urgent and pivotal concepts which are now center stage; however, as these factors have been and will remain a part of us as a whole, independent of a specific moment in history, the songs of this particular piece do connect somehow to this particular time," the Avetts share. "Isolation, resilience, frustration, confusion, contemplation and hope are here, both in regards to our own lives and as a consideration of the human experience in general.

"There is humor and love, both for life itself and as it binds a pairing of people," they add. "We touch on historical prejudice, faith, economic disparity, gun violence, incarceration, redemption and, as is increasingly standard with our records, stark mortality."

Scott and Seth Avett recorded The Third Gleam as a trio with longtime bassist Bob Crawford. It's the third project in the Avetts' The Gleam series and follows the Avett Brothers' Closer Than Together, their 10th studio album, released in October. Previously, the brothers shared "I Go to My Heart" and "Victory," both from the project.

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