Okkervil River

I'll give Silver Gym another go

I rank Stand Ins and Stage Names as perfect records, BSB obv also v v good, rarely listen to the early albums, forgot abt Golden Dreams (should revisit) and their "downfall" started w IAVF

This one is completely distinct from their previous output imo - almost nothing in the way of crescendos/indie-rock songwriting tropes beyond a couple of moments here and there. It sounds to me explicitly like a set of eulogies, except for the stream-of-consciousness closing track. (I guess more like "bouts-of-consciousness" based on the NPR writeup.)

The new Okkervil River album is called ‘Away’. I didn’t plan to make it and initially wasn’t sure if it was going to be an Okkervil River album or if I’d ever put it out. I wrote the songs during a confusing time of transition in my personal and professional life and recorded them quickly with a brand new group of musicians. I got together the best New York players I could think of, people whose playing and personalities I was fans of and who came more out of a jazz or avant garde background, and we cut the songs live in one or two takes – trying to keep things as natural and immediate as possible – over three days in a studio on Long Island that hosts the Neve 8068 console which recorded Steely Dan’s Aja and John Lennon’s Double Fantasy. I asked Marissa Nadler to sing on it and got the composer Nathan Thatcher to write some beautiful orchestral arrangements, we recorded them with the classical ensemble and then I mixed the record with Jonathan Wilson out in Los Angeles.

from http://www.stereogum.com/1877894/okkervil-river-okkervil-river-r-i-p/mp3s/

I really love this record. it reminds me a lot of the most recent counting crows record (compliment) in the way scheff stretches out lyrically, packing a lot of information into these songs but still communicating very directly and clearly. the arrangements are also v gorgeous and spacious

great hangover record too

I just noticed that "The Industry" references The Silver Gymnasium's Pitchfork score

xp important quality! was there ever a hangover record thread?
God Save The Clientele probably my all time #1

that album art...

... perhaps works well on a big canvas

i liked silver gymnasium quite a lot, i thought it was better as an album than the previous few even if the high points weren't as high

will listen to this new one asap

there is indeed a hangover music thread

hehe, I see

the instrumentation on "judey on a street" sounds imported from a van morrison record

Love that bopping bassline, and the way it peters out like a fading pulse

Interesting to read about how "Days Spent Floating" was recorded, it totally does sound like an afterthought, but somehow not in a bad way. Loosens out into almost nothing.

"Red" and "Kansas City" is an all-time one-two punch imo

I haven't given a shit about OR since The Stage Names. What is that, nine years ago? To this day, Black Sheep Boy is the only front-to-back great album in my book. And if I'm honest, from The Stage Names, only "Savannah Smiles" is the song that floors me to this day - that song is really an all-time "sad-bastard" classic.

I remember making copy CDs of BSB for all my friends - easily an album that translated across most of my friend-base, even among the "12-CD-a-year-club" friends that we all share. Given all that, I'm kind of surprised how little I care about a new release from this band. Their last couple have left me so cold. But I guess I still have some hope...

give it a shot, my experience is basically parallel to yours

Soooooo yeah I think this might be the best thing Sheff's done so far.

I think this is the best Okkervil album.

(i'm going to listen to the new one soon)

"black sheep boy #4" -- wow, still so moving after all these years

i can't stop listening to this album

this is not as much of a departure sonically as people were making it sound but it feels fresh regardless

I'm starting to think the album would be a little better off, pacing-wise, without "She Would Look For Me" but otherwise I'm still enamored. Reviews have been surprisingly middling for the most part? They all have the feel of folks who listened to it maybe twice.

I'm in love with "Mary On a Wave," love that almost-groove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnXEtu6nwFY

did we know that scott walker covered "black sheep boy"??

yeah! everyone loves tim hardin

oh duh i forgot the song "BSB" was a tim hardin cover

not really feeling this on first listen :( will definitely try again

It took me a few listens. Hell, it took me 5 or 6 to make sense of "Call Yourself Renee" as the second track.

yeah it took more listens than usual but i adore this album now

it's a bit of a trojan horse where the previous albums were all very up-front about going straight at your emotions

I'm in love with "Mary On a Wave," love that almost-groove.

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, September 10, 2016 2:37 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ever the contrarian, I found myself thinking this might be their best album one the first run through and now, having listened again to BSB (although the appendix nudges it to a very high level admittedly) I am convinced it is. I can't understand how anyone could rate this as a seven out of ten album.

I like this album fine but the idea that it's better than BSB or The Stage Names is indeed contrarian.

not sure about BSB yet but I'll take this one over any other Okkervil record

Maybe it's the fact that it reminds me (in places) of prime American Music Club but I definitely prefer it to TSN.

Yeah, lyrically, this one is actually reminding me a lot of late-period AMC and recent solo Eitzel, where he crams in as many words as possible in a song and tells a story (ie: Patriot's Heart, Windows on the World).

I really like this album... maybe I should be listening to AMC! never tried getting into them tbh

OR releases since The Stage Names felt like a series of dead ends, an ever-improving band let down by some directionless songwriting (the Golden Opportunities series really stands head & shoulders above those records; I'm sure the live shows were great, too) & so it's nice to hear nine tracks' worth of memorable melodies & interesting lyrics again -- the looser, pared-back arrangements are also welcome, although I kinda dug the era of Will Sheff as mad fussy recording artiste getting 25 musicians in the studio for a single take, I think I'm way more likely to actually listen to this album the way through

whoever compared Away to Astral Weeks upthread was OTM (that comparison may even have come from the press kit? in which case, lol)

Lol I didn't get no press kit (I think)

maybe I should be listening to AMC! never tried getting into them tbh

This doesn't really sound anything like Eitzel/AMC to me but they're essential regardless. I recommend their final album The Golden Age as a starting point.

this is the 3rd recent thing i like a lot that's had AMC invoked in discussion about it so i should probably get on that as well

this showed up on Spotify, last time i checked it wasn't there.

ciderpress, one of the other two were, I'm guessing, Ryley Walker (slightly more OTM)? what was the third?

god, black sheep boy is still so good. i have the stage names on CD and listen to it much more, and often will try to convince myself that it is superior, but...

xp dont remember the 3rd but i remember thinking 'that's the second time' when someone said it for ryley walker

maybe i just have deja vu

Still listening to this in full every few days, still totally in love with it. Deserves to be mentioned right alongside the other (also great) Albums About Death that have dominated conversation this year (Bowie, Cave, to a lesser extent Touché Amore, more I'm forgetting I'm sure). On recent listens Marissa Nadler's backing vocals have really emerged as an essential bit of coloring.

yeah it's really good. I listened to it so much while it was streaming that all the hooks are embedded in my head now, but I can't always remember which song a given snatch of melody occurs in, the whole thing is so much 'of a piece'

also: the departure from previous albums was what initially stood out, but now I've started to recognize lines of continuity, e.g. the way "Frontman in Heaven" recalls (to my ears) Okkervil River's outstanding cover of Big Star - "O, Dana"