Okkervil River

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"

that really is a great cover, I really love that first Golden Opportunities tape. I'd kill for them to release the full "Basement Tapes"-style session that produced some of those covers and "The President's Dead"

3 weeks out and i'm still listening to "Mary On a Wave" on repeat, this is the best song of his career

masterpiece alert

I'm inclined to agree.

Really like every song but She Would Look For Me is the one that is offering up so much more than I initially thought would.

and of course, this is a perfect fall album

...perfect for every fall, it turns out. I picked up the 2xLP early this year; the fourth side features a sidelong field recording (including a patch of rain), which is a nice alternative to the "fourth side etching" most bands are doing these days.

3 weeks out and i'm still listening to "Mary On a Wave" on repeat, this is the best song of his career

― ciderpress, Wednesday, September 28, 2016 12:05 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

still stand by this

not sure if I'd go that far but it is a blissful thing

couldn't agree more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiOJBGjnV04

hmmmmmmm

while it's sonically completely different from Away, which imo was a masterpiece, I think the songwriting seems on point

dang i figured Away was gonna be a Final Album for the OR bandname

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ7bMUsOu7w

Not exactly my taste but oh well, in many ways finding a new direction is a sign of life - long live Okkervil River

dad rock is cool in 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG3YIoW_2zs

I liked Away a lot, and this is better than anything on Away

ooof I completely disagree, this is diminishing returns on the "sad tales of showbiz" Sheff vein of songwriting (despite the autobiographical addition)

this is better than anything on Away

https://i.imgur.com/sSgATjF.gif

it's got a good melody though

Sheff's "inspirations" playlist for this record features "Let's Go Out Tonight" which is not a huge surprise but unfortunately there's just a little too much going on for full-on Blue Nile worship

his is diminishing returns on the "sad tales of showbiz" Sheff vein of songwriting

Agree that he'd run that muse into the ground. But he finds the emotional core of each of these stories, and I am very there for those turns of phrase

i like the crispness and glossiness of the production. i wish that carried through to... the other two songs i've heard from this

though on revisit i like what's going on in "pulled up the ribbon" too. "don't move back to la" is borrrrrrring in a way that away never was

can't imagine he'll ever top Away for me though i think i thought the same thing about Black Sheep Boy a decade earlier and then my tastes changed

I appreciate that Sheff is both restless and prolific even if the results have been wildly variable in quality for the last few records. That's a lot more than I can say for basically all the other big indie singer-songwriters who came up around the same time.

also I had no idea they covered "Candle on the Water" for the nu-Pete's Dragon OST. That must have been a nice little check.

So this compelled me to listen to the album, and there are times when it feels like a worthwhile sequel to Away but it loses the plot something awful in its second half. Lots of wild swings; tries to do way too much and breaks the spell, which I guess is the story of post-Stage Names Okkervil River. It's gonna be worth excavating though; there are a few knockout songs ("Love Somebody" and esp "Pulled Up The Ribbon") and even some of the long winded songs have these little moments of bliss scattered throughout them.

this is my favorite of the singles so far, love the dizzy melancholy vibe

diminishing returns on the "sad tales of showbiz"
otm but imo the autobiographical addition really lifts it

Simon, where's that inspiration playlist?

https://open.spotify.com/user/okkervilriver/playlist/74vXlXmcChs5sJ5Z8azPNk?si=6XKjKURHQImbFIZUZ1JUjA