Okkervil River | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Taking their name from a short story by Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya, Okkervil River are a Lone Star State-based indie rock outfit led by erudite tunesmith Will Sheff, who has remained the sole constant member throughout the bands tenure. Employing a wide range of styles that veer from vivid Americana and pastoral folk to rowdy indie rock and electronic-tinged psych-pop, the band became a regional fixture before finding national success in the mid- to late 2000s via acclaimed LPs like Black Sheep Boy and Stage Names, and subsequently with late-career highlights such as Silver Gymnasium. Vocalist Will Robinson Sheff and drummer Seth Warren first rubbed shoulders as high-school students in Meriden, New Hampshire, a town they eventually left to attend different colleges. The two reconvened several years later in Austin, where they put together Okkervil River with the help of bassist Zachary Thomas. The group recorded several EPs as a trio, including 2000s Stars Too Small to Use, before crossing paths with multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Meiburg at a local bar. Meiburg soon joined the band, and Okkervil River made their first big splash at the SXSW festival in March 2000. Producer Brian Beattie caught the bands SXSW showcase and agreed to helm Okkervil Rivers debut album, Dont Fall in Love with Everyone You See. Warren relocated to California during the recording sessions and was replaced by drummer Mark Pedini; meanwhile, the band inked a record contract with Jagjaguwar, which released the completed Dont Fall in Love in January 2002. A second release, Down the River of Golden Dreams, followed one year later. Pedini had left the band by early 2003, however, thus leaving his former bandmates without a drummer as they prepared to return to SXSW. Travis Nelson climbed aboard as a temporary replacement and soon joined the permanent lineup, as did lap steel guitarist Howard Draper. Already renowned in Texas, Okkervil River rose to national prominence with the release of 2005s Black Sheep Boy, followed several months later by the Black Sheep Boy Appendix EP. Both albums featured a wide crop of musicians, and the bands lineup continued to change as Scott Brackett joined on keyboards and Pat Pestorius replaced Zach Thomas on bass. Okkervil Rivers profile was likewise expanding, as Virgin Records reissued both Black Sheep Boy discs in Europe. Despite the international buzz, several bandmates found themselves torn between Okkervil River and Shearwater, a group originally founded in 2001 as a side project for Meiburg and Sheff. As the side project evolved into a full-fledged band, Meiburg quit Okkervil River to devote his full attention to Shearwater. Brian Cassidy was then hired, and the new lineup unveiled itself with 2007s Stage Names. Stage Names climbed to number 62 on the Billboard charts, Okkervil Rivers highest peak to date. Three months after its release, pianist Justin Sherburn joined the band. Lineup changes continued into 2008, as Cassidy left and was replaced by the Wrens Charlie Bissell, who toured throughout the summer before giving up his spot to guitarist Lauren Gurgiolo. With their newest lineup intact, Okkervil River returned that fall with the bands fifth album, The Stand Ins. TV performances and various tour dates followed, as did the opportunity to serve as Roky Ericksons backing band on True Love Cast Out All Evil. Okkervil River frontman Sheff produced the critically acclaimed album, a role he reprised on his own bands 2011 release, I Am Very Far. Sheff went Back to the Future on 2013s Silver Gymnasium, an 11-track ode to his hometown of Meridian, New Hampshire. The next few years saw Sheff endure a number of hardships, both personal and professional. By 2016, he had rebuilt both himself and the band from the ground up, culminating in the release of the deeply personal Away. Two years later Sheff and company returned with In the Rainbow Rain, a vivid, buoyant, and stylistically diverse collection of songs that signaled a tonal shift away from the bucolic folk of their previous outing. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 21 Title: Stars Too Small to Use Released: 2000-03-21 Tracks: 7 Duration: 31:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Kathy Keller (03:29) 2 The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion (04:24) 3 Oh, Precious (05:02) 4 For the Captain (05:34) 5 Auntie Alice (02:56) 6 Whole Wide World (04:07) 7 He Passes Number Thirty-Three (05:45) |
 | Album: 2 of 21 Title: Dont Fall in Love With Everyone You See Released: 2002-01-22 Tracks: 9 Duration: 46:16 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Red (03:40) 2 Kansas City (05:46) 3 Lady Liberty (03:41) 4 My Bad Days (06:22) 5 Westfall (05:54) 6 Happy Hearts (04:17) 7 Dead Dog Song (04:00) 8 Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas (06:36) 9 Okkervil River Song (05:56) |
| Don't Fall in Love With Everyone You See : Allmusic album Review : Marking the point when audiences started to warm up to Okkervil Rivers delicate yet explosive sound, Dont Fall in Love With Everyone You See foreshadows a band that would soon be capable of the fantastic follow-up Down the River of Golden Dreams, but here, they still sound a bit green. So what if Okkervil River wasnt quite up to snuff at this juncture? They soon would be, the songs hold merit, and aspirations of grandeur snake out and about, most notably in the horn-driven "Lady Liberty." But amidst all of the goodness, Will Sheffs vocals often detract from the listening. During the nine tracks of Dont Fall in Love With Everyone You See, Sheff sometimes seems too desperate to sing the songs with the naturalness they deserve, exuding false confidence in a manner that suggests his discomfort for writing himself out of his vocal range. Although most songs survive this disadvantage -- as in the building opener "Red," where the melody Sheff is aiming at (coupled with a lovely set of lyrics) balances the scale -- this is what keeps Dont Fall in Love With Everyone You See from obtaining the high quality Okkervil River later achieved. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 21 Title: Julie Doiron / Okkervil River Released: 2003-07-23 Tracks: 10 Duration: 39:17 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Sweetest Eyes (When You Laugh) (02:47) 2 Snowfalls in November (04:17) 3 The Songwriter (04:43) 4 The Wrong Guy (01:32) 5 Cancel the Party (02:06) 6 He Passes Number Thirty-Three (05:58) 7 Omie Wise (05:02) 8 A Leaf (03:31) 9 Blackest Coat (07:14) 10 The Sweetest Eyes (When You Laugh) (reprise) (02:04) |
| Julie Doiron / Okkervil River : Allmusic album Review : Julie Doirons half of this split CD on the Spanish Acuarela label strips away everything but Doirons plaintive voice and her gentle acoustic guitar backing. The five songs are short, spare, heart-wrenching, and bedroom recorded. Doiron, never a slave to pitch, lets her voice wander as the emotion dictates, and when she clunks a note on guitar, she lets it be. "Snowfalls in November," a sprightly, hopeful tune, is the highlight, but all five songs are solid. The only problem is that the songs start to sound a little samey after a bit. Luckily, there arent enough songs here to really let that be a problem. The other band on the split single, Okkervil River, is an alt-country band in the vein of Wilco or Palace. Will Robison Sheffs wavering and sometimes over the top vocals preside over a swirling big top jammed with Wurlitzers, accordions, and loads of guitars. When the band keeps it all together, like on the sprawling "He Passes Number Thirty-Three" or the epic "Blackest Coat" (at least until Sheff starts bellowing), it is a very pleasant racket. When Sheff oversings like a backwoods Bocelli and the band saws monotonously away on "Omie Wise" or Sheffs lyrics are squirmy like on "A Leaf," the band should change its name to Overkill River. A very uneven release for them. And in fact, a very uneven split single as the stark intimacy of Doirons songs and the jam-packed and barely under control songs by Okkervil River dont really blend at all. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 21 Title: Down the River of Golden Dreams Released: 2003-09-02 Tracks: 11 Duration: 45:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Down the River of Golden Dreams (01:15) 2 It Ends With a Fall (03:55) 3 For the Enemy (06:09) 4 Blanket and Crib (02:51) 5 The War Criminal Rises and Speaks (05:11) 6 The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion (04:24) 7 Dead Faces (02:36) 8 Maine Island Lovers (04:51) 9 Song About a Star (03:30) 10 Yellow (06:14) 11 Seas Too Far to Reach (05:01) |
| Down the River of Golden Dreams : Allmusic album Review : Down the River of Golden Dreams is the record Okkervil River has been threatening to make since its 2000 issue, Stars Too Small to Use. Songwriter Will Sheff has turned out his nicest batch of tunes here and reined in his voice just enough to communicate his ideas without pushing too hard, while simultaneously keeping the urgency and emotive qualities he showcased on the predecessor to this record, Dont Fall in Love with Everyone You See. Because of this, Down the River of Golden Dreams is easily the groups most cohesive record to date, and solidifies Okkervil River as a band worthy of scrutiny. The fluidity of Sheffs thoughtful lyrics align with his ability to play with tension, which comes across rather nicely on the jaunty "It Ends with a Fall," the dynamic epic "The War Criminal Rises and Speaks," and the delicate "Maine Island Lovers." The band has grown into a tighter unit with a knack for some nice arrangements -- which again was hinted at on Okkervil Rivers previous releases, but not fully realized until now. Liberal use of Rhodes, Hammond organ, and Mellotrons is the catalyst of these songs, leading the strings and horns through crescendos and textural landscapes without losing the raw nature that has always suited Okkervil Rivers honesty and desire to connect with the listener on an emotional level very well. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 21 Title: Sham Wedding / Hoax Funeral Released: 2004-04 Tracks: 11 Duration: 42:30 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 See See Rider (04:56) 2 Murderess (05:02) 3 Moonshiner (01:59) 4 Willow Tree (03:53) 5 Unravel (04:41) 6 All the Pretty Horses (04:26) 7 Happy Song for My Friends (02:47) 8 Cool My Blood (04:45) 9 Mountain Laurel (02:25) 10 Trouble in Mind (03:47) 11 Never Come Again (03:43) |
 | Album: 6 of 21 Title: Sleep and Wake-Up Songs Released: 2004-11-02 Tracks: 7 Duration: 29:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 A Favor (05:59) 2 Youre Untied Again (03:05) 3 And I Have Seen the World of Dreams (04:20) 4 Just Give Me Time (04:08) 5 No Hidden Track (04:26) 6 Youre Untied Again (Solo Sketch) (03:39) 7 Knocking Myself Out (Home Recording) (03:24) |
 | Album: 7 of 21 Title: For Real (Theres Nothing Quite Like the Blinding Light) Released: 2005-03-01 Tracks: 3 Duration: 17:59 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 For Real (05:32) 2 The Next Four Months (03:31) 3 For the Enemy (live) (08:55) |
 | Album: 8 of 21 Title: Black Sheep Boy Released: 2005-04-05 Tracks: 11 Duration: 47:22 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Black Sheep Boy (01:18) 2 For Real (04:42) 3 In a Radio Song (05:38) 4 Black (04:39) 5 Get Big (03:55) 6 A King and a Queen (03:22) 7 A Stone (05:23) 8 The Latest Toughs (03:11) 9 Song of Our So-Called Friend (03:23) 10 So Come Back, I Am Waiting (08:03) 11 A Glow (03:43) |
| Black Sheep Boy : Allmusic album Review : Okkervil River continue to break the glass between messy nerves and orchestrated elegance on their fourth full-length, Black Sheep Boy, titled after the lovely song penned by Tim Hardin with which the band opens the record. However, their take on the song feels a bit rushed and uneventful, which knocks the tender breath from the lyrics and presents a clumsy start. Opening the record this way is the singular yet major complaint of the album, ironically pushing "Black Sheep Boy," the intended centerpiece, to the outskirts of the albums overall feel. Thankfully, the song spans only a short minute, so when "For Real" gently slips into motion, then cracks with a surprise beating of guitar stabs, thats when the confident dynamics Okkervil River established on their fine 2003 album, Down the River of Golden Dreams, break free. This confidence never wanes through the remainder of the album; it is here that the bandmembers sound like they are emotionally attached to the material and here that the album shouldve begun. Black Sheep Boys mix of warm strings with Wurlitzer, barroom piano, horns, and vibes effectively creates a spatial and moody balance to the electric guitar attacks and roomy drums. With these songs, clear desperation creeps through and gives the impression that the band couldve fallen to pieces at any moment -- but somehow held it all together -- and the catalyst of the whole passage is Will Sheffs thick, spitting voice pleading with the cascading dissonance and majesty of the arrangements. Tracks like "In a Radio Song," a song similar to the moody explorations of Saturday Looks Good to Mes precursory group, Flashpapr, are where these arrangements take the foreground, but equally effective are the forward, uptempo tracks that are less expansive, such as the super-hooky "The Latest Toughs," with its compressed falsetto singsong backing vocals, and the bouncy screaming "Black." Save the title track, Okkervil River continue to deliver the quality of Down the River of Golden Dreams, and though sonic evolution is barely existent from that recording, perhaps it doesnt need to be; certainly Sheffs songwriting still floats above that of his peers. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 21 Title: Black Sheep Boy Appendix Released: 2005-11-22 Tracks: 7 Duration: 24:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Missing Children (03:05) 2 No Key, No Plan (03:00) 3 A Garden (00:51) 4 Black Sheep Boy #4 (05:23) 5 Another Radio Song (04:59) 6 A Forest (01:24) 7 Last Love Song for Now (05:59) |
 | Album: 10 of 21 Title: Overboard & Down Released: 2006-09-05 Tracks: 5 Duration: 20:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 The Presidents Dead (02:42) 2 The Room Im Hiding In (03:28) 3 O, Dana (03:01) 4 Love to a Monster (04:35) 5 Westfall (live) (06:32) |
 | Album: 11 of 21 Title: The Stage Names Released: 2007-08-07 Tracks: 9 Duration: 41:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe (04:25) 2 Unless Its Kicks (04:39) 3 A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene (04:00) 4 Savannah Smiles (03:38) 5 Plus Ones (03:43) 6 A Girl in Port (06:37) 7 You Cant Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man (04:54) 8 Title Track (05:22) 9 John Allyn Smith Sails (04:33) |
| The Stage Names : Allmusic album Review : Okkervil River broke away from the crowded indie rock pack with 2005s superb Black Sheep Boy, a ragged but ornate barroom romp that drank its way to the top of countless year-end lists by finding that thin vein that separates triumph and desperation and hammering as many nails into it as they could in under 50 minutes. Fans used to Will Sheffs visceral, lo-fi caterwauls may be disappointed in the bruised and elegant Stage Names upon first listen, but further spins reveal BSB as more of a stepping-stone than a peak. "Its just a life story/so theres no climax," from the rousing opener "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe" sets the tone, and its floor tom gallop and volatile whoops sound like an unholy combination of My Aim Is True-era Elvis Costello and Transformer-era Lou Reed spilling out of an old player piano. Sheff has proven himself again and again to be a gifted wordsmith, and Stage Names features some of his finest parlor room romanticisms and slacker-poet observations to date. "Plus Ones," a studied rumination on some of popular musics most beloved numerically titled tracks ("96 Tears," "99 Luftballons," "Eight Miles High," "TVC 15," "7 Chinese Brothers," "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" etc.) adds an unnecessary integer ("Not everyones keen on lighting candle 17/The partys done/The cakes all gone/The plates are clean"), cleverly illuminating pop cultures insatiable thirst for sequels and remakes. Its a trick that could easily turn trite in less capable hands, but one of the bands many strengths is its ability to mirror Sheff with arrangements that match the earnestness, wickedness and occasional pomp of the lyrics. Those talents are used most effectively on two of the records other highlights, the soft and broken "Girl in Port" and the alternately heartbreaking and hysterical "John Allyn Smith Sails," the latter of which chronicles the suicide of poet John Berryman and manages to integrate the Beach Boys "Sloop John B" so seamlessly that youd swear it had never existed before. Its not all winsome ballads about backstage passes and gutter bound writers though, as Sheff and company open up the full sneer on "Unless Its Kicks," "You Cant Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man" and "A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene," making Stage Names less of a metaphor for the cinematic lives we wish we could have and more of a reminder that its us who make the films. [The first 5,000 copies of Stage Names (the "deluxe" edition) came with a bonus disc featuring all of Sheffs demos for the record.] | ||
 | Album: 12 of 21 Title: Golden Opportunities Mixtape Released: 2007-12-07 Tracks: 9 Duration: 33:59 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 April Anne (04:14) 2 Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (02:29) 3 I Want to Know (02:58) 4 Do What You Gotta Do (03:04) 5 I Came Here to Say Im Going Away (04:33) 6 The Blonde in the Bleachers (03:01) 7 Antarctica Starts Here (02:43) 8 Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas (07:12) 9 Solo (03:45) |
 | Album: 13 of 21 Title: The Stand Ins Released: 2008-09-09 Tracks: 11 Duration: 40:12 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Stand Ins, One (00:47) 2 Lost Coastlines (05:31) 3 Singer Songwriter (03:49) 4 Starry Stairs (04:01) 5 Blue Tulip (06:18) 6 Stand Ins, Two (00:31) 7 Pop Lie (03:12) 8 On Tour With Zykos (04:54) 9 Calling and Not Calling My Ex (04:21) 10 Stand Ins, Three (00:54) 11 Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979 (05:54) |
| The Stand Ins : Allmusic album Review : Okkervil Rivers 2007 almost-masterpiece Stage Names presented a vivid dissection of the "Silver Screen," both literally and metaphorically as filtered through the crowded, cerebral library of bandleader (and one-time film student) Will Sheff. 2008s Stand Ins doesnt just complement Stage Names (which was originally conceived as a two-disc package), it completes it. Opening with the first of three mini-instrumentals that sound like a mash-up of Bill Frisells Nashville and Radioheads Kid A, Stand Ins revisits many of the central themes (loneliness, failure, hero worship, and broken love) that bounced around the set of Stage Names. Songs like "Lost Coastlines" (a duet with former member and current Shearwater main man Jonathan Meiburg), with its Motown bassline, copious "la, la, las," and "Old West" horn section, "Blue Tulip" with its slow-burn build and explosive finale, and "Singer Songwriter" with its lament that "This thing you once did might have dazzled the kids/but the kids once grown up are going to walk away" are all instant Okkervil classics, but its the nearly six-minute closer that seals the deal. Like "John Allyn Smith Sails," Stage Names ode to doomed poet John Berryman, "Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979," a tribute to gay glam rock icon Jobriath, who was adored and then devoured by the press in the mid-70s before dying of AIDS in 1983 a poor lounge act, presents its subject as tragic, misunderstood, and buried beneath the weight of his accomplishments. Its a subject that suits Sheffs writing style well, flowing out like an Americana version of something off of Scott Walkers self-penned fourth album. Stand Ins glows a little less bright than its predecessor, but it shines nonetheless. There may be nothing as immediately satisfying as "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe," "Plus Ones," or "Girl in Port," but it offers a more streamlined ride than Stage Names, wasting very little time trying to squeeze every last bit of scarlet pulp from the blood orange. | ||
 | Album: 14 of 21 Title: True Love Cast Out All Evil Released: 2010-04-20 Tracks: 12 Duration: 44:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Devotional Number One (02:17) 2 Ain’t Blues Too Sad (01:23) 3 Goodbye Sweet Dreams (04:25) 4 Be and Bring Me Home (05:35) 5 Bring Back the Past (02:02) 6 Please, Judge (04:25) 7 John Lawman (03:56) 8 True Love Cast Out All Evil (04:29) 9 Forever (03:57) 10 Think of as One (05:20) 11 Birds’d Crash (03:59) 12 God Is Everywhere (02:40) |
| True Love Cast Out All Evil : Allmusic album Review : One of the most remarkable things about Roky Erickson’s collaboration with Okkervil River, 2010’s True Love Cast Out All Evil, is the simple fact it exists at all. The story of Erickson’s long struggle to regain his physical and mental health has been told often enough by now, and even after making a nearly miraculous recovery and returning to the concert stage sounding strong, fiery, and confident, it was anyones guess if Erickson still had a good record left in him. Thankfully, Erickson’s manager, Darren Hill, had the idea of pairing Erickson with Okkervil River in the studio, and the match proved to be both surprising and inspired. True Love Cast Out All Evil is easily the most ambitious and imaginative album to carry Erickson’s name since the 13th Floor Elevators’ Easter Everywhere, and it’s a bold, evocative effort to present Erickson’s music in a fresh context. Rather than mimic the sound of the Elevators or Erickson’s solo work of the 1970s and 80s, Okkervil’s Will Sheff (who produced the sessions) has used Erickson’s songs as the centerpiece of an elaborate aural collage that transforms these 12 tunes into a cycle that runs in intriguing parallels to the dominant themes of Roky’s life and music. True Love Cast Out All Evil begins and ends with augmented versions of amateur recordings Erickson made during his stay at the infamous Rusk Maximum Security Prison for the Criminally Insane, and in between these songs, the album moves back and forth between the themes of love and redemption and the pain and chaos he witnessed under incarceration. While the positive themes outweigh the negative, the songs and their presentation make it clear none of this came easily; “Be and Bring Me Home” and the title cut walk a fine line between weariness and strength, the gospel-influenced “Ain’t Blues Too Sad” searches for succor amidst his life’s many trials, and “Bring Back the Past” and “Goodbye Sweet Dreams” match Erickson’s philosophizing with spirited rock & roll. Sheff and his bandmates perform with vigor and vision on all 12 songs, and they chose wisely from Erickson’s archive of unrecorded and under-recognized material. Of course, none of this would matter if Erickson wasn’t up to the challenge of making new music, and every moment of this album bears his stamp. Erickson’s vocals are simply superb, and if the material often demands a more contemplative tone than the feral howl of “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” he clearly has plenty of vocal colors in his palette, and he applies them with soulful wisdom that’s the perfect match for his elliptical lyrical style. After spending decades in a personal hell, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to wonder if Roky Erickson had anything left to say in the recording studio, but True Love Cast Out All Evil is more than just a comeback, it’s the best and most deeply moving album of his solo career. | ||
 | Album: 15 of 21 Title: Live at Schubas 05/09/2004 Released: 2011-01-26 Tracks: 13 Duration: 1:18:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Black Sheep Boy 3 (05:18) 2 Red (03:54) 3 It Ends With a Fall (04:52) 4 Kansas City (08:09) 5 For Real (05:20) 6 Maine Island Lovers (06:26) 7 Seas Too Far to Reach (06:55) 8 Westfall (06:46) 9 For the Enemy (10:21) 10 A Stone (05:49) 11 Lady Liberty (03:48) 12 The War Criminal Rises and Speaks (05:40) 13 Okkervil River Song (04:50) |
 | Album: 16 of 21 Title: I Am Very Far Released: 2011-05-06 Tracks: 11 Duration: 51:01 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 The Valley (03:50) 2 Piratess (04:00) 3 Rider (04:25) 4 Lay of the Last Survivor (03:51) 5 White Shadow Waltz (04:26) 6 We Need a Myth (04:38) 7 Hanging From a Hit (05:15) 8 Show Yourself (05:20) 9 Your Past Life as a Blast (05:32) 10 Wake and Be Fine (03:25) 11 The Rise (06:16) |
| I Am Very Far : Allmusic album Review : Fresh from backing the legendary Roky Erickson on 2010’s triumphant True Love Cast Out All Evil, Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff decided to head home to his native New Hampshire to carve out the meat of the group’s sixth long-player. The resulting I Am Very Far, which was produced by Sheff, feels both transitory and triumphant, successfully integrating the Austin, Texas-based collective’s penchant for lovelorn, indie Americana with the wild abandon of 21st century pop music’s increasingly blurry genre borders. Elements of Wilco, the Flaming Lips, Springsteen, Talking Heads, Arcade Fire, and even the Fixx burn through I Am Very Far, down lightning rods affixed to the myriad studios procured by Sheff and crew throughout the record’s intentionally sporadic recording schedule. Production styles vary from track to track, which in lesser songwriting hands, could spell disaster, but Sheffs a gifted lyricist and his melodies have always been sneakier than they appear upon first listen, which makes the transition from a cut like “The Valley,” with its motor-mouthed, electro-apocalyptic pulse, into the late-night, Bowie-esque soul jam “Piratess” feel surprisingly natural. Elsewhere, stand-out cuts, such as the soaring “Rider,” the lovely and languid “Hanging from a Hit,” the ramshackle “Your Life as a Blast,” and the rousing first single “Wake and Be Fine” stand up to anything on 2007’s near-classic Stage Names, and while they may not share that record’s remarkable sense of place, they each confidently occupy a space of their own making. | ||
 | Album: 17 of 21 Title: Golden Opportunities 2 Released: 2011-11-28 Tracks: 5 Duration: 22:08 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 It Is So Nice to Get Stoned (05:43) 2 U.F.O. (03:25) 3 One Soul Less on Your Fiery List (04:46) 4 Plan D (03:11) 5 Dry Bones (05:03) |
 | Album: 18 of 21 Title: The Silver Gymnasium Released: 2013-08-30 Tracks: 11 Duration: 48:58 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 It Was My Season (04:26) 2 On a Balcony (03:04) 3 Down Down the Deep River (06:32) 4 Pink-Slips (03:39) 5 Lido Pier Suicide Car (05:31) 6 Where the Spirit Left Us (03:47) 7 White (03:06) 8 Stay Young (04:19) 9 Walking Without Frankie (05:00) 10 All the Time Every Day (04:36) 11 Black Nemo (04:58) |
| The Silver Gymnasium : Allmusic album Review : Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff has never shied away from dipping his pen into the seemingly bottomless inkwell of nostalgia that seems to permeate much of 21st century indie pop and rock, but on The Silver Gymnasium, the Lone Star State band’s seventh long-player, Sheff goes all in with a celebration/exorcism of his hometown of Meridian, New Hampshire, crafting an 11- track, exhaustively detailed audio-biography that comes off like a more idiosyncratic, less overbearing version of Arcade Fires The Suburbs. Sheff, born in 1976, imbues much of the record with a patina of (tasteful ) 80s AOR excess (listeners have the option to go online and explore the town using an 8-bit point and click adventure game), especially on album highlights like the expansive and disarmingly tragic "Down Down the Deep River," the bubbly ska and new wave-infused "Stay Young," and the hypnotic "Walking Without Frankie," the latter of which sounds like a dark, alternate universe rendering of J. Geils Bands "Freeze Frame." Its not all Trans-Ams and Pac Man though, as evidenced by the whimsical, Hunky Dory-era Bowie-colored opener "It Was My Season" and the twang-kissed, fist-pumping "White." That the band uses these time-worn textures without irony suggests a real reverence and understanding of the time period, which helps the material feel more like an emotionally charged high five than just a highly impressionistic show and tell, and Sheffs willingness to strike a balance between his roots rock past and his personal past should please longtime fans and newbies alike, even if they spend the majority of the ride wondering why the tour bus never actually stops at the Silver Gymnasium. | ||
 | Album: 19 of 21 Title: Golden Opportunities 3 Released: 2013-12-18 Tracks: 5 Duration: 06:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Dance Hall Days (?) 2 Give Me the Night (06:50) 3 Money Changes Everything (?) 4 Seven Year Ache (?) 5 The End of the Innocence (?) |
 | Album: 20 of 21 Title: Away Released: 2016-09-09 Tracks: 9 Duration: 57:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Okkervil River R.I.P. (06:41) 2 Call Yourself Renee (07:07) 3 The Industry (04:31) 4 Comes Indiana Through the Smoke (04:45) 5 Judey on a Street (07:16) 6 She Would Look for Me (07:03) 7 Mary on a Wave (05:11) 8 Frontman in Heaven (07:44) 9 Days Spent Floating (In the Halfbetween) (06:54) |
| Away : Allmusic album Review : The eighth studio long-player from the Will Sheff-led ensemble, Away serves as both a denouement and a commencement for Okkervil River; a string of old beer tickets and a crisp hundred-dollar bill fished out of a retired jean jacket during a basement purge. Written during a period of personal and professional upheaval that included the death of Sheffs beloved grandfather, Away, despite boasting a talented crew of collaborators, feels more like a solo outing than a fussed-over band project -- Sheff sums it up more elliptically as "Its not really an Okkervil River album and it’s also my favorite Okkervil River album." Recorded on Long Island with a seasoned posse of N.Y.C.-based indie rock, jazz, and avant-garde players, the nine-track set is by far his loosest and most lyrical to date -- each song was completed in just one or two takes. Opener "Okkervil River R.I.P." sets a melancholy tone, and with the exception of the bouncy "Judey on a Street," that faded postcard patina extends throughout the remaining eight tracks. The gorgeous, psilocybin-mushrooms-expedited "Call Yourself Renee" and the tone poem-ish and aptly named "Days Spent Floating (In the Halfbetween)," the latter composed via an October spent parsing through each mornings first complete thought, see Sheff pushing outward a bit from the erudite confessionalism of the past, but his long-winded conversational lyrics are still as evocative ever -- the lovely "Comes Indiana Through the Smoke" imagines the battleship that Sheffs grandfather served on in WWII returning to him in his final moments. The paucity of any full-on rockers may drive some listeners back to the groups more propulsive, earlier works, but the sullen, sweet, and soulful Away rewards a patient ear. | ||
 | Album: 21 of 21 Title: In the Rainbow Rain Released: 2018-04-27 Tracks: 10 Duration: 48:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Famous Tracheotomies (04:54) 2 The Dream and the Light (06:49) 3 Love Somebody (04:13) 4 Family Song (05:10) 5 Pulled Up the Ribbon (04:11) 6 Dont Move Back to LA (04:38) 7 Shelter Song (04:59) 8 How It Is (03:34) 9 External Actor (04:08) 10 Human Being Song (06:10) |