CD Odyssey Disc 1893: Okkervil River

With this review, it’ll be three 4-star albums in a row, opening me up to calls of “going soft”. I would remind you that I don’t review random albums, I review albums I’ve decided to buy. This tends to favourably skew the data.

Disc 1892 is… The Stage Names

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2007

What’s up with the Cover? A stylized hand emerges from a lake or pond in front of a stylized sunset (sunrise?). Up close, this cover looks like it is coloured thread stitched artfully together to create a picture, which is pretty cool.

Not as cool as some random giant hand reaching out of a magic pond, though.

How I Came To Know It: I had literally forgotten and had to go back to my first Okkervil River review twelve years ago at Disc 575 for a refresher. Turns out, this band was featured in a folk magazine advert. I recall now it was for “I Am Very Far” (released in 2011) and which – strangely – I have still not reviewed.

Random is as random does, friend.

How It Stacks Up: Well, this is a fine pickle. I figured this one would land #2 or #3, but looking back I see I’ve left a place for it at #1. I gave #2 to “The Stand Ins” back at that Disc 575 review. I admit, it was close between them.

I am correcting that now, putting “Stand Ins” at #1, and “Stage Names” at #2. Damn it, maybe I have gone soft…

Ratings: 4 Stars

As you might expect from a record I saved the #1 spot for, “The Stage Names” is a great Okkervil record, and the fact that it had one or two merely “okay” songs than I remembered does not diminish that. Sure it’s #2, but it is a burnished, filigree collection of silver, ornate and complex in its beauty.

If you’re just coming to Okkervil River, they are an indie rock band that features unlikely but seductive melodies that tend to take one or two more turns than you expect but always leave you in the right place.

This musical approach is highly compatible with the lead singer/songwriter Wil Sheff’s and phrasing. Sheff can take freeform poetry and twist it into lyrics that pirouette their way through the song. It feels a bit breathless at times, and is akin to taking one or two in-time dance steps after the music ends. A little awkward, but fully commit to it and…its art.

“The Stage Names” has some of the Sheff’s finest songwriting, starting with the awkwardly titled “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe”. The imagery in “Our Life…” matches Sheff’s vocal delivery, slightly manic, and jumping from image to another. Best stanza:

“Where the lock that you locked in the suite
Says there's no prying
When the breath that you breathed in the street
Screams there's no science
When you look how you looked then to me
Then I cease lying and fall into silence”

Like most Okkervil River songs, these seemingly disparate images are stitched together like the cover art into something grander, in this case various allusions to film making and how they are like the editing process in a movie. A lot of scenes along the way that we later infuse meaning and purpose into.

When the band is hitting, they are chock-full of these “a-ha” moments that make you feel clever, as though you came up with it. They always walk that line of “too clever by half” but on this record they are on the right side of it a good majority of the time.

My other favourite is “A Girl In Port” a stripped-down tune that is a blend of urban-Gothic and seafaring imagery fused together into a romance that will melt you into a puddle of yearning. Most romances are about a single girl, but this one features many, each filling and emptying our restless narrator’s soul on his travels. There is no ill-will here, and as the chorus makes clear between each encounter:

“Let fall your soft and swaying skirt
Let fall your shoes, let fall your shirt
I'm not the lady-killing sort
Enough to hurt a girl in port”

Where there are some lapses are in the musical experimentation. The music is built to be frantic and aggressive, and it works, but when they descend into sound effects, it could pull me out of the moment right when I was getting acclimated to the spin of it all.

“The Stage Names” is a record that can be beloved by young romantics and English Lit graduates alike (did I just repeat myself?). It also works for pretty much anyone who enjoys a little of the old yearn n’ pine, delivered poetically with a slightly tortured lilt.

Best tracks: Our Life Is Not a Movie Or Maybe, Savannah Smiles, Plus Ones, Girl In Port

CD Odyssey Disc 1779: Okkervil River

My third review of the week! Hard to swing it, but I was aided by the fact that this next album is an EP, and so that much quicker to grok in its fullness.

Disc 1779 is…Overboard & Down

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover? A man lies uncomfortably on a makeshift raft. There are also a lot of hands.

We’ve got some hands in the sky that appear to be summoning good weather and a bit of wind to speed him on his way. We’ve also got our castaway’s own hands, one of which appears to be signaling ‘thank you’ to the sky hands.

Then we’ve got a bunch of hands coming up from under the water. The motivation of these hands is unclear. They don’t look threatening, but I tend to be wary of any hands that rise up out of the ocean depths. I know that’s wrong of me to prejudge these water-dwelling hands, which might be very nice and just patting the man to reassure him that help is on the way. I just think the odds of that are low.

How I Came To Know It: I found this at random while searching for something else at the local record store. I knew Okkervil River quite well but I’d never heard of this record and so, assuming it would be hard to find and I’d regret not buying it later, I snapped it up. I haven’t seen it anywhere since, so I’m glad I did.

How It Stacks Up: I have lots of Okkervil River records, but I decided when I reviewed the Black Sheep Boy Appendix back at Disc 1583 that I would rate their EPs separately. I have (or had) two EPs, and rank “Overboard & Down” at #1 of those two.

Ratings: 3 stars

The internet informs me that this album was put out to support Okkervil River’s 2006 tour of Australia. That’s a cool thing to do, but apart from giving Aussie indie rock fans something to buy at the merch table, how is the music?

Quite solid, thanks for asking. This is vintage early Okkervil River, and singer and principal songwriter Will Sheff’s signature warble is in full effect. Sheff has a delivery that always feels slightly tortured, and he uses it to wring every drop of emotion out of songs that are pretty wrought for the wringing.

“Overboard & Down” is a mix of three new original studio songs (so you’re not just buying it for the cover or the concert memories), a live version of “Westfall” and a Big Star cover. Let’s tackle them in these groupings, shall we?

First the three originals, all of which are solid. “The President’s Dead” is the first track and also the record’s best. Sheff does a great job of capturing such a monumental and tragic event, in this case a mythical president not a reference to an actual event. This is important because the song is less about the event itself and more what it is like to get that kind of news, and all the individual reactions that follow. Best line:

“In the media tent where they spin and they slant,
They just foam the mouth, and they champ at the bit”

Why is that the best line? The correct use of champ at the bit. It is hard to get through my day without some rando saying “chomp at the bit,” with me then being forced to determine if social niceties and circumstance allow me to correct them in the moment. “Chomp” is wrong, people – stop fucking doing it.

But I digress.

Back to the record, after a relatively forgettable but solid “The Room I’m Hiding In” our third original is “Love to a Monster.” It is a powerful example of how Sheff is not afraid to let his songwriting go to very dark places. Here we have a thoroughly despicable narrator describing all his ill-wishes for his ex, right down to reveling in “what a number he did” on her and his plans to do the same to someone new:

“I grow tired of this song turned my eyes to the blonde in the bleachers
She's a lovely young creature I think she's seeking adventure
I think she's ready to see that the world ain't so sweet nor so tender
I won't break her just bend her and make her into my new ringer for you”

Yech. This song makes my skin crawl, but holy crap it does a good job of doing that, and while it is dark and disturbing art, it’s art all the same.

Which brings us to the live version of “Westfall”. The studio version appears on the 2002 album “Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See” (reviewed back at Disc 1267). It is a song of horrific murder, and I won’t get into the details (I cover those on the studio review). I will say that this live version is excellent and even more angsty and black than the original. I wouldn’t say I needed another version of “Westfall” but I am glad to have this one all the same.

Rounding out the record is a cover of a song called “O Dana” originally by seventies rock band Big Star. I don’t know much about Big Star but this cover didn’t inspire me to explore them, and overall it is the weakest track on the EP.

“O Dana” aside, “Overboard & Down” is a solid record, and did what a good EP should always do – left me in the mood for more.

Best tracks:  The President’s Dead, Love to a Monster, Westfall (live)

CD Odyssey Disc 1674: Okkervil River

I feel like I got my first good night’s sleep in a week last night. I woke up at 10 a.m., rolled out of bed and took a leisurely shower. Looking out the window the world looked vibrant; full of colour and the promise of adventure. I should get a good night’s sleep more often.

Disc 1674 is…Away

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2016

What’s up with the Cover?  A beautiful piece of cover art. This art features a lot of birds. Maybe even a Hitchcockian number. Travel with care along this shoreline and consider an umbrella.

How I Came To Know It: I was already an avowed fan of Okkervil River when “Away” came out, so this was just me buying the new record and hoping for the best.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine full-length albums by Okkervil River. Of those, “Away” comes in ninth. Yes, it is last.

Rating: 2 stars

When Okkervil River’s Wil Sheff is at his best his records sound like the echoes of pure longing through an ancient cave complex filled with the wistful shadows of regret. When he is at his worst, he sounds like Eeyore’s favourite radio station. “Away” was more the latter.

I’ll admit I didn’t listen to this record in an environment conducive to its success. Okkervil River is a “sit in your living room” kind of band, and I took it out driving and later for a run. But I’ve done the same with albums more maudlin than this and they succeeded.

“Away” has all the hallmarks of what goes into a good Okkervil River record. It has the ghostly atmosphere, and Sheff’s aching warble is as interesting as ever. Sheff’s vocals are not pitch perfect, but they are incredibly distinctive and built to tell stories.

His stories often run on a bit longer than you might want in a pop song and on “Away” they meander more than usual. Only nine tracks take up almost a full 60 minutes of music, with half the songs clocking in at seven minutes or longer. Many outwore their welcome long before they were over.

Things start off on a relatively positive note. “Okkervil River RIP” has a pretty arrangement, layering a couple of guitars to set the tone and slowly introducing additional elements (bass, drum, and even organ) into a song that grows more complex and beautiful as it advances. The slow climb is one of the things that often draws me to the band.

A lot of the songs that followed had the same layering effect but felt busy – or worse – muddy. When I listen to Okkervil River I always brace myself for this soupy approach to sound, but on “Away” it doesn’t consistently come together. The band is as tight as ever, so that’s not what’s at issue. It is more that the songs themselves meander without a purpose. With Okkervil River you want all that time and musical development to eventually spill out into the sea. A lot of these songs just warble endlessly and leave you wondering what the point of it all was.

There are some high points on the record – just enough to catch my attention in a positive way. “Comes Indiana Through the Smoke” is a beautiful and unexpected melody that isn’t ruined by the fact that Sheff is overly enamoured of the title phrase he’s created. It’s a good song, even if you can hear everyone smiling at their own invention.

But too often you get the moaning notes of “She Would Look For Me” hang-dogging its way through a tune. It doesn’t seem to know where it wants to go, but you can be certain its protagonist will be sighing heavily throughout the journey. It is all very Percy Shelley exclaiming “I fall on the thorns of life. I bleed!” Seriously Percy, tone it down and pull yourself together.

Many years ago I missed a chance to see Okkervil River when they opened for the Decemberists and I still regret not going. “Away” salves that disappointment a little bit by reminding me that these guys can really get their drone on, and that’s not what I look for in my music.

Best tracks: Okkervil River R.I.P., Comes Indiana Through the Smoke, Days Spent Floating (in the Halfbetween)

CD Odyssey Disc 1616: Okkervil River

This week I bought Wil Sheff’s solo album and, as though on cue, the dice gods rolled me up one of his albums with the band Okkervil River. Here it is!

Disc 1616 is…Down the River of Golden Dreams

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2003

What’s up with the Cover?  If this is what takes place on the River of Golden Dreams I’d hate to see what happens on the river of Silver Nightmares.

Today’s event on the river features an octopus so aggressively devouring some dude that his face is pressing through its skin like some kind of rubber mask from hell.

Or maybe this is not a predatory attack but just what this half-man/half-octopus creature looks like as it wanders the waves looking for people to horrify with its visage.

Consider me horrified.

How I Came To Know It: I have been an Okkervil River fan for years, but had always thought their discography started with 2005’s “Black Sheep Boy”. Not so! There were two albums prior, and “Down the River of Golden Dreams” was the second. I discovered this when I saw a used copy of it for sale at my local record store. I bought it and hoped for the best and…here we are.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine full length Okkervil River albums, which is all of them, not including the previously mentioned Will Sheff solo album. I also have two EPs. Of the nine LPs, this one fits neatly into a 5,6,7, run with “The Silver Gymnasium” (6) and “Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See” (7). It is a photo finish but I’m giving the tie to “Down the River…” because of one song, which we’ll visit in detail below.

Rating: 3 stars

You either love or hate Wil Sheff’s mournful warble. If you like it, then there is a good chance you’ll do what I did and dig back through Okkervil River’s catalogue and unearthed every single early gem – including his sophomore album, “Down the River of Golden Dreams”.

This is proto-Okkervil River. The pure stuff, pre-Black Sheep Boy when they became the darling of the obscure indie folk-rock set (well, one of the darlings). I do not profess to know them then, and so I explored this record from the perspective of someone who started at the sea and went exploring upriver from there.

From this perspective, this record feels relatively stripped down and stark, even though it is anything but. On the contrary, much of “Down the River…” is atmospheric and full of sound. Even on moody tracks like “For the Enemy” when the song is mostly Sheff, an organ and a bit of drum, there is a fullness to this sound that envelopes you. Later the song adds a bit of soft guitar but even then everything has space in between, and yet…not. There’s room, yes, but each instrument reverberates and washes over the others without creating interference.

As with other Okkervil River records, the band tells tales from the varied perspectives of characters. Sometimes it feels autobiographical, but more often than not it is Sheff descending deep into another person so completely you lose him. With the ghostly quality to his voice, it is easy to imagine it keens across a graveyard, telling other people’s stories long gone into time or distance.

One such tale, “The War Criminal Rises and Speaks” is one of Okkervil River’s most compelling and troubling songs. The story is of a person who committed heinous war crimes while trying to survive some terrible never-defined conflict zone. It starts quiet and slow, and you can imagine the titular character’s chair scraping the floor as he rises to tell his tale. At no point does he defend his crimes, but he does challenge the listener to understand and see him as a person:

“Now he's rising and not denying.
His hands are shaking, but he's not crying.
And he's saying "How did I climb
out of a life so boring into that moment?
Please stop ignoring the heart inside,
oh you readers at home!
While you gasp at my bloody crimes,
please take the time
to make your heart my home”

It is a big ask, coming so soon after a visceral telling of his terrible deeds, and as Sheff sings it his vocals rise in both tone and emotional intensity.

On their previous record, Okkervil River takes on the persona of a child murderer in “Westfall”. In that song, the killer is unrepentant and resigned to their own evil, but here the narrator calls for mercy, and leaves the listener with a heap of conflict, as you process the complexities of justice and mercy, rage and empathy. It is a hell of a journey.

The album ends with “Seas Too Far To Reach” which has a country honky-tonk feel. After all the angst of the ten songs that precede it, appears to be a perfect palate cleanser, but listen closely and you’ll pick up dying parent themes, depression and a desperate need for love and connection. In that way, it is the perfect summation of the record, which sways gently on the surface, but invites all sorts of complexity if you have the fortitude to dive in.

Best tracks: It Ends With a Fall, For the Enemy, The War Criminal Rises and Speaks, Dead Faces, Seas Too Far To Reach

CD Odyssey Disc 1582 and 1583: Okkervil River

This next record saw a slight adjustment to the random rolling system. I ended up rolling the seven song EP the band released as bonus material first. Since the EP makes the most sense as an addendum (coda?) to the main record, and was even released the same year, I figured they should be reviewed together. So, here they are as a double review.

Disc 1582 is…. Black Sheep Boy (and Black Sheep Boy Appendix)
Disc 1583 is…. Black Sheep Boy Appendix)

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2005 (both)

What’s up with the Cover?  Our titular Black Sheep Boy joins a warthog and a bird in staring at an empty plate. This looks to be the worst dinner party ever. They’re even all herbivores, meaning they can’t even eat each other. At least the radio behind BSB’s head can provide some music, but I expect it is depressing music and worse than that – played in mono.

Yeah, that’s right mono enthusiasts, I went there. Mono sucks.

And now…bonus album cover art, with the cover of…the Appendix!

What’s up with this Cover? Things have not improved for our Black Sheep Boy since the World’s Worst Dinner Party. It looks like in the absence of a good meal, our hero has become quite hangry, donning a set of half-plate and – with eyes literally burning with rage – has plunged his sword into the eyesocket of a black sheep…armadillo?

How I Came To Know It: I got into Okkervil River about ten years ago after seeing an ad for their 2011 release “I Am Very Far” in a music magazine. That caused me to start digging backward into their catalogue and three albums into that journey through time I arrived at “Black Sheep Boy”.

I did not know about “Black Sheep Boy Appendix” until a couple years ago where I randomly saw a used copy at the local record store.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine Okkervil River albums (including this one) and two of their EPs (including this one). Of those, I put “Black Sheep Boy” in at #4, and the Appendix at #2 out of the EPs.

Ratings: 4 stars for Black Sheep Boy; 2 stars (barely) for the Appendix

“Black Sheep Boy” is the album that broke Okkervil River “big”. Heh heh. I jest, of course. Okkervil River has never broken big, probably because their music is too interesting, unique and thoughtful to get radio play. In any event, in my limited experience of having conversations with people about Okkervil River, “Black Sheep Boy” is often talked of in revered tones as “their best”. I don’t share that assessment, but I do think it is an excellent record.

For those of you who haven’t read previous reviews of the band, Okkervil River are a mix of rock, country, folk and…warble? You may get horns, you may get the sound of a river, and you’ll probably get a bit of guitar, maybe rocking out, maybe pastorally plucked. It varies.

The one thing you will definitely get is Will Sheff’s unique vocals. Sheff sounds a bit like a Vegas crooner, if the crooner was a doomed character in an H.P. Lovecraft story. He has a Gothic quality to his vocals, and an anguish to his delivery that makes every song flush with deep feeling.

Sheff is also the principal songwriter, and he builds tunes around his vocal style. The melody will tend to trip forward an extra bar or so past where you think it is going to resolve. The lyrics follow suit, with strong alliteration and assonance, tripping over themselves like they’re staggering down a staircase. Here’s an example of the lyrics from my favourite song on the record, “A Stone”:

“And if it could start
Being alive, you'd stop living alone
And I think I believe
That if stones could dream
They'd dream of being laid side-by-side
Piece-by-piece
and turned into a castle
For some towering queen
They're unable to know”

It is hard to select this small selection, as these songs are all set-piece poems, most beautiful when heard in their entirety. On the page that “falling forward” quality isn’t fully realized but trust me, alongside the tune it is sublime.

It is also sad and full of no small amount of self-loathing. This record came from a dark place for Sheff that I’d speak to more but won’t, partly because I don’t cotton to post-Modern approaches to understanding art through externalities, but mostly because I don’t need to. Like any good work of art, “Black Sheep Boy” speaks for itself, and voices its own truths.

The album is not perfect, and there are places where the band is either too clever for their own good. The sound of water and birdsong “In a Radio Song” feels emotionally manipulative, and the eight minute long “So Come Back I’m Waiting” unsurprisingly drags a bit. Despite these small quibbles, this is one of Okkervil River’s better records.

Black Sheep Boy Appendix

If you were to strip out most of the great stuff from the original album, and just keep the overwrought and overthought stuff like “In a Radio Song” and “So Come Back I’m Waiting” you’d have the Appendix.

I suspect these songs are the ones that got cut from the original album and listening to them I can understand why. The strings and horns that give pleasant flourishes to the original record here are dominant and intrusive. Instrumentals/Soundscapes like “A Garden” and “A Forest” are as aimless as they are pointless.

I was unsurprised that there is a song called “Another Radio Song” furthering the themes of one of the few songs from the original record that left me unfulfilled.

“Black Sheep Boy #4” is the one solid entry that is worth hearing. It had me wondering what troubling adventures Black Sheep Boy #2 and #3 got up to. Alas, no reveal on this mystery. I assume whatever it was takes him from “guy missing out on dinner” to “guy ramming a sword into an armadillo’s face”.

If I had to review this package as a single entity, the Appendix would pull the works down to a bare three stars. However, I’ve decided to see them as separate entities, with the original being excellent and the add-ons from the Appendix being the kind of unnecessary that will be leaving my music collection shortly after I click “post”.

Best tracks: (all from the original album): Black Sheep Boy, For Real, Black, A King and a Queen, A Stone, Song of Our So-Called Friend

CD Odyssey Disc 1267: Okkervil River

I’m off work this week doing my annual spiritual recharge. Today has been a good and restful one, starting with a whole bunch of French Open tennis, a nap with my cat and now a music review.

All of this is designed to try to keep my mind off not only work, but also the stress of the Stanley Cup finals. My beloved Bruins play the St. Louis Blues in Game 4 tonight.

Disc 1267 is… Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover? The world’s scariest one-man band. One-man band dudes are a bit weird to begin with, but I think Bird Skull here takes the title. I wonder what he keeps in that mini armoire? I’m going to go with squirrel bones.

How I Came to Know It: I’ve known Okkervil River for years, but I didn’t really know this album at all. Then I saw it for sale used at a local record shop and decided to give it a chance.

How It Stacks Up:  I have nine Okkervil River albums, which is all of their full-length efforts. Of those nine, I rank “Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See” somewhere around #5 through #7. Since I’m not one to equivocate, I’ll go with…7.

Ratings: 3 stars

“Don’t Fall in Love With Everyone You See” is Okkervil River’s debut full length LP and it sounds like it: full of fresh promise and raw energy and the occasional roughness around the edges of a band still evolving. Okkervil River are still finding their path, but the overgrown trail is worth the walk.

Bands are always evolving, and this is more true of Okkervil River than most. In the past eight years or so they have adopted a much lusher and electronically friendly sound. I like their new sound, but like any hipster wannabee, I also hold their early sound close to my heart.

“Don’t Fall in Love…” is a more organic record than recent listeners will expect, with a lot of acoustic guitar strumming, but the harbingers of what they would become are already here. There is a bit of horn or cello here and there creating an orchestral feel throughout that tells you this is only ever going to be part folk music, and that’s just how the band likes it.

The one continuous element to the band is the singing and songwriting of Will Sheff, who at this early stage already demonstrates a knack for both melodic composition and some complicated arrangements that never trip over one another. That said there are moments (“Lady Liberty”) comes to mind where there is a bit too much banging and crashing going on. It works and doesn’t technically get in its own way, but it was still a bit frantic near the end for my tastes.

I also regret the decision to have guest singer Daniel Johnston sing part of “Happy Hearts.” Sheff’s vocals can tend toward a pitchy warble, but they are an acquired taste, that once acquired work perfectly with these oddball folk-pop ballads. Daniel Johnston sounds strained and scratchy. Knowing the rough-edged production on this one track is deliberate didn’t help any either. It frustrated me because this should have been one of the album’s better tracks, and I would love to hear it re-recorded in their modern polished style. Maybe at a live show…

When it all lands right, “Don’t Fall in Love…” has magical moments. The opening track “Red” is a gut-wrencher, opening with:

“Red is my favourite colour, red like your mother’s

Eyes after a while of crying about how you don’t love her.”

This song and “My Bad Days” both had an insistent emotional twist to their melodies that reminded me favourably of early seventies Leonard Cohen. It is high praise and while the lyrics aren’t at the same consistent level, the band lands the same torture and hurt in their delivery.

The record’s standout track is “Westfall” a troubling crime ballad tracing a psychopath’s journey from youth, through adolescence and murder. Like many great murder ballads, Sheff worms his way inside the psyche of the killer and forces you to see the world through his eyes. The song ends with the ominous line as the killer faces the cameras of the courtroom:

“They’re looking for evil, thinking they can trace it

But evil don’t look like anything.”

According to Wikipedia (which is never wrong) Sheff was inspired to write the song about a specific murder. I won’t mention which one, since the song was recorded in 2002 and the convictions have since been overturned. The crime is now an unsolved cold case. In any event, none of the names in the song match either killers or victims, which is just as well. In the end, the song is a fiction and a damned creepy one at that.

“Westfall” is the best effort on a record that takes you on an many explorations of the dark recesses of the human heart (albeit not all quite so deadly). The record will haunt you at times, but you’ll enjoy the journey.

Best tracks: Red, Westfall, Okkervil River

CD Odyssey Disc 1225: Okkervil River

After feeling a bit off on Sunday I awoke Monday to a raging cold and it has been hitting with a vengeance ever since. Argh. I’m trying to blink my way through my watery right eye long enough to get this review in the books.

Fun fact – this is my second straight review of an album released in 2013 and the last time I reviewed this next artist was also 2013. And yes, it was all totally random – thanks for asking.

Disc 1225 is… The Silver Gymnasium

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? Getting work as a giant-bird man must not be easy, but this fellow has found a career in moving houses. He’s brought along his ghetto blaster for music, which is pretty common in that profession and his dead frog, which is less so.

How I Came To Know It: I am a pretty devoted Okkervil River fan, and tend to just buy their new albums as they come out. That’s what happened here.

How It Stacks Up:  I have nine Okkervil River albums which to this point is all of them. “The Silver Gymnasium” is solid, but only can manage 6^th best.

Ratings:  3 stars

“The Silver Gymnasium” is a lush combination of narrative tales and confessionals; the latest brain-child of lead singer and songwriter Will Sheff who has blended alternative rock, Goth and Americana into something all its own.

Early albums in the band’s discography are a lot more stripped down and folky, but “The Silver Gymnasium” follows the more ambient rock stylings of the band’s 2011 release “I Am Very Far” but with a brighter more up-tempo sound.

Much like my last review (Typhoon’s “White Lighter”) there is a lot going on here. The band has been through many iterations – this one has nine members, plus another seven sessionals adding such instruments as the glass harmonica, handclaps and (because the trumpet, trombone and flugelhorn weren’t enough) a saxophone. Overall, Sheff does a solid job of juggling all these musical options and I never felt like it was too lush, although it definitely approached that line in places.

In terms of standouts, you generally don’t think “radio single” when you listen to Okkervil River. Sheff adamantly refuses to conform to ear-pleasing melodies, favouring music to match the mix of melancholy and reverie that Sheff infuses into his lyrics. The closest he comes is “On a Balcony” which benefits from a soaring chorus and some well-placed horn flourishes. Sure, the protagonist is high on pills, fine wine and “something-and-soda” but it is a song that captures the crazy triumph of excess, even while recognizing the falsity of it all.

Over the years I’ve learned to trust Sheila’s ear for music and when she goes out of her way to praise a song I go out of my way to listen carefully. On “The Silver Gymnasium” that song is “Down Down the Deep River” and once again I was not disappointed. Like “On a Balcony” it has a triumphant sound riding on some well-placed horn. It has a mid-eighties groove and a youthful nostalgia that made me feel like I was back in high school. Then – just when I thought it couldn’t get better – the aforementioned handclaps make an appearance. Handclaps make every song better.

I didn’t particularly like the meandering and unfocused “Lido Pier Suicide Car” or how that phrase trips awkwardly off of Sheff’s tongue. “Walking with Frankie” tries to work a rockabilly beat into the album and it is a poor fit for the record, but these are exceptions. For the most part the record is smart and while it isn’t restrained, it has the good sense to stretch in the right places.

Lyrically, these songs are like a lush piece of narrative short-fiction and it takes a lot of listening and attention to follow along, but it is usually worth the effort.

The record ends with “Black Nemo,” a song that starts with a gently played guitar and piano piece that feels like a cool breeze after a late summer squall. The whole album is an exploration of coming-of-age experiences, and “Black Nemo” feels like a summary of the journey, rich and accepting and maybe a little regretful as each year has those memories farther and farther away. Or as Sheff sings it:

“In the fizzed-out snow of a cathode screen

I saw a broken ghost in an old soap scene.

I let his dead and dreamy eyes follow my eyes.

“And I had a vision of everything hidden but always around me.

It fought me. It found me while going away, floating away on the tide.

Shooting through time with my eyes getting glassy and lined,

While I watch seasons rocketing past me.

They’re going away – a little more every day, all the time.”

The song pulls in both imagery and musical elements from the ten that came before it, making you feel like you’re at the end of a dreamy vacation to a youthful time when things were slower, and everything seemed to mean a little more. And in a way, you are. Way to end on a blue note, Mr. Sheff.

Best tracks: On a Balcony, Down Down the Deep River, Where the Spirit Left Us, Black Nemo

CD Odyssey Disc 575: Okkervil River

I should be thinking about getting a good night’s sleep, but instead I’m thinking about getting in a music review.  CD Odyssey, you are a harsh mistress.

Disc 575 is…. The Stand Ins

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2008

What’s up with the Cover? A disturbing little skull puppet.  For a guy with a skull for  a head this guy looks in desperate need of a skeleton, or maybe based on that green bottle in one hand he’s just really drunk. What’s up with his other hand you ask?  That’s a secret to reveal in a later review, so for now you’ll just have to wait and wonder.

How I Came To Know It:  A couple of years back I read an article about Okkervil River in a folk music magazine Sheila put in my Christmas stocking.  I checked into them and was told by some music store folks at Ditch not to get their most recent album (at the time, this was 2011’s“I Am Very Far”) because it wasn’t very indicative of their sound.  Undeterred, I went and Youtubed a bunch of their songs and liked the ones I heard on this album and also those on 2007’s “The Stage Names” so I bought those records first.

How It Stacks Up:  We have six of Okkervil River’s seven albums (still missing their debut, “Don’t Fall in Love With Everyone You See”).  Of the six, I’d say “The Stand Ins” is one of my favourites – I’ll put it second.

Rating:  4 stars

Okkervil River is one of those bands that deserves a lot more recognition than they get.  This makes “The Stand Ins” a little ironic, since the record is mostly about exploring ideas around being famous.  A bit of a reach for Okkervil River, but then again, maybe being moderately famous allows them the foot in both worlds necessary to write an album like this.

Since this is my first Okkervil River review, a quick note on the band’s general style.  They are firmly indie rock, landing somewhere between later Wilco and the Decemberists, with just a pale and wan hint of the Smiths adding a dollop of melancholia.

I will credit “The Stand Ins” for being a tight little album of only eleven tracks.  It could even be a little more substantive than it is, since three of those tracks (“Stand Ins” Parts One, Two and Three respectively) are just little instrumental mood pieces, each under a minute long.  I think the album establishes mood well enough without these song fragments.

The other eight songs are held together by both the cohesive themes of fame (and its quality of disconnecting us from meaningful human interaction).  They are also held together by the dreamy quality of Okkervil River’s music, which manages to submerge the dangerously manic quality of indie rock under ‘tear in my beer’ country song construction.  Lead singer Will Sheff’s voice - simultaneously high and angst-ridden and low and mournful - plays a big part.  He can sing well under the melody or soar over it with equal grace, and his choices always serve the song first, not the singer.

The song “Lost Coastlines,” sums up the album as a whole (as a good opening track does).  “Lost Coastlines” is a song about how making your way in the world can sometimes mean losing your bearings.  Sheff’s phrasing is amazing, and is a hallmark for the band’s overall style on the record.  Lines blend into one another, and also blend with the music in a way that makes the rhyming lines seem almost accidental.  The song drives you forward like a leaf in the wind, unsure where one bar ends and another begins.  It is delightfully disorienting – like a carnival ride for the subconscious.

As befits a band that stands in between fame and obscurity, for every song internalizing the experiences of celebrity, there is another about our reaction to those more famous than ourselves.  “Singer Songwriter” is a character study about the idly famous, receiving recognition for who they are over what they accomplish and “Calling and Not Calling My Ex” is about the pain of having ended a relationship with someone famous, and subsequently being confronted with that person’s image at every turn.

“Calling and Not Calling My Ex” has a title that would usually have me frothing mad, but in this case I think it well suited to that conflict we have all felt when we desperately wanted to call someone we still care about, and the knowledge that ship has already sailed down its own lost coastline.

The best song on the record is “On Tour With Zykos,” a still, quiet song that steals into you all the more effectively for all of the tethered mania of the other tracks.  It is a song about the emptiness of the road, but it appeals to anyone feeling like they’ve lost their zest for life.  If you’ve ever had a dry spell in your creative endeavours these lines may appeal to you:

“I was supposed to be writing

the most beautiful poems,

and completely revealing

divine mysteries up close,

but I can’t say that I’m feeling

that much at all at 27 years old.

I’m discussed with desire

by the guys who conspire

at the only decent bar in town,

and they drink MGDs

and they wish they had me,

like I wish I had fire.”

This song has a lazy Sunday afternoon quality to its flow, in the same way that “Sunday Morning Coming Down” does.  It is a lazy, do-nothing day, but it is the undercurrent that you should be spending it differently that turns what should be relaxing into something sad and slightly tragic.

Then again, if that last line above had you thinking “that’s a bit maudlin” you’d be right.  Okkervil River like to steep themselves in the self-loathing (remember the touch of the Smiths I noted earlier) but it is done well for the most part, so I forgive it. “Blue Orchid” and the unforgivably pretentiously titled “Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979” both stray too far over the line of self-pity.

Half this album is excellent, and the other half is overwrought and self-indulgent, making a final rating difficult to decide.  Despite all its warts, “The Stand Ins” drew me in on the the good songs well enough that I was able to forgive its failings, and so right at the end I edged it into four star territory, if only just.

Best tracks:   Lost Coastlines, Singer Songwriter, Starry Stairs, On Tour With Zykos, Calling and Not Calling My Ex