I kinda loved I Am Very Far despite the maddeningly inconsistent production but the last album was such a drag
― the naive cockney chorus (Simon H.), Friday, 21 August 2015 20:01 (nine years ago) link
i actually liked the last album a lot more than the previous few idk
― ciderpress, Friday, 21 August 2015 20:37 (nine years ago) link
though really they're a band with a lot of great songs but only one great album (black sheep boy)
― ciderpress, Friday, 21 August 2015 20:46 (nine years ago) link
Yeah last album had some catchy songs. Seemed very focused. I Am Very Far felt like a band trying to make lightning strike but didn't wanna put the work into the songs
― Evan R, Friday, 21 August 2015 20:53 (nine years ago) link
barack sheep boy
― scarlett bohansson (unregistered), Friday, 21 August 2015 21:10 (nine years ago) link
I prefer The Stage Names to Black Sheep Boy, tbh
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Saturday, 22 August 2015 03:41 (nine years ago) link
Damn, both of those Obama playlists are excellent
― Evan R, Saturday, 22 August 2015 03:50 (nine years ago) link
Stand Ins > Stage Names > Black Sheep Boy >>> First couple albums >>>>>>>>> Last two albums :'(
Never really got BSB but enjoy it a lot everytime I give it a listen, listen to Stand Ins once a month, love every track - especially "Singer Songwriter" and "Calling and Not Calling My Ex" which is also a great christmas song. "Girl in Port" makes me come back to Stage Names again and again. And "Savannah Smiles".
Bought IAVF too but was so dissappointed - dislike the production and songs seem underdeveloped/overthought. Gave Gymnasium a quick listen but it's not for me - feel like Sheff is stretching/trying too hard, where the songs on Stand Ins sound like they wrote themselves. Love his prosaic/novelistic lyrics on SN/SI.
Anyway, I'm sure Okkervil will return with GREAT material at some point.
― niels, Saturday, 22 August 2015 09:26 (nine years ago) link
i think Black Sheep Boy is their masterpiece with Down the River of Golden Dreams being a very close second. also very much in love with Stand Ins and The Stage Names. the others are not even close to those four albums.
― Bee OK, Saturday, 22 August 2015 17:34 (nine years ago) link
BSB : one of the best album covers ever.I love it.
― mark e, Saturday, 22 August 2015 17:43 (nine years ago) link
"Hanging By a Hit," "Show Yourself" and "Lay of the Last Survivor" are some of my fave OR tunes. I finally grew to love "Your Past Life As a Blast" after a while, too - it did that breezy vibe better than anything on the most recent album, imo. Also loved the IAVF-era b-side "Walked Out On a Line," a v creepy song that would have been a better closer than the one on the album.
― the naive cockney chorus (Simon H.), Sunday, 23 August 2015 03:47 (nine years ago) link
Timely revive for me, I've been listening to this band a lot lately. "Mermaid" is another great song (the A-side of "Walked Out on a Line", right?) which should really have been included on I Am Very Far.
Stage Names is still their masterpiece for me with BSB running it a close second. I like IAVF fine, don't get the critical opprobrium it gets. Can't get into the last one at all.
― anthony braxton diamond geezer (anagram), Sunday, 23 August 2015 10:19 (nine years ago) link
I like 'em all but IAVF definitely took a long time to grow on me -- all the songs feel about twice as long as they actually are, which is a dubious accomplishment
& since nobody else has mentioned it yet, I gotta throw some love to the Sleep & Wake-Up Songs EP
― Heroic melancholy continues to have a forceful grip on (bernard snowy), Sunday, 23 August 2015 10:23 (nine years ago) link
oh lol it's literally the fist reply to the thread v_v still a great record though!
just realized will sheff sings a whole lot like jonathan richman!
― niels, Monday, 5 October 2015 13:22 (eight years ago) link
New one streaming on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/2016/09/01/491942048/first-listen-okkervil-river-away
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Thursday, 1 September 2016 14:33 (eight years ago) link
Cool. At first listen this sounds like a real return to form after The Silver Gymnasium, which I still can't get into despite repeated plays.
― heaven parker (anagram), Thursday, 1 September 2016 15:19 (eight years ago) link
Will is one of my fave frontmen
― pinkhushpuppies (rip van wanko), Thursday, 1 September 2016 15:41 (eight years ago) link
sounds stellar, a return to form - but also a lot of new territory, getting some Van Morrison/Joni Mitchell vibes in terms of song dynamics
― niels, Friday, 2 September 2016 08:55 (eight years ago) link
i liked silver gymnasium more than most of y'all; it'd be in my top three w/ bsb and stage names. it's got some real joyful moments.
new one sounds to be more in the vein of golden dreams, which i'd put just a cut below those.
― dc, Friday, 2 September 2016 09:47 (eight years ago) link
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
― niels, Friday, 2 September 2016 10:29 (eight years ago) link
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.)
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, 2 September 2016 11:05 (eight years ago) link
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/
― niels, Sunday, 4 September 2016 16:35 (eight years ago) link
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
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Sunday, 4 September 2016 16:59 (eight years ago) link
great hangover record too
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Sunday, 4 September 2016 17:22 (eight years ago) link
I just noticed that "The Industry" references The Silver Gymnasium's Pitchfork score
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 4 September 2016 17:24 (eight years ago) link
xp important quality! was there ever a hangover record thread?God Save The Clientele probably my all time #1
― niels, Sunday, 4 September 2016 17:24 (eight years ago) link
that album art...
― ciderpress, Sunday, 4 September 2016 17:25 (eight years ago) link
... perhaps works well on a big canvas
― niels, Sunday, 4 September 2016 17:28 (eight years ago) link
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
― ciderpress, Sunday, 4 September 2016 17:31 (eight years ago) link
there is indeed a hangover music thread
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Sunday, 4 September 2016 17:33 (eight years ago) link
hehe, I see
― niels, Sunday, 4 September 2016 17:37 (eight years ago) link
the instrumentation on "judey on a street" sounds imported from a van morrison record
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Sunday, 4 September 2016 17:59 (eight years ago) link
Love that bopping bassline, and the way it peters out like a fading pulse
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 4 September 2016 19:05 (eight years ago) link
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.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 4 September 2016 19:15 (eight years ago) link
"Red" and "Kansas City" is an all-time one-two punch imo
― pinkhushpuppies (rip van wanko), Monday, 5 September 2016 05:16 (eight years ago) link
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...
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Tuesday, 6 September 2016 03:08 (eight years ago) link
give it a shot, my experience is basically parallel to yours
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Tuesday, 6 September 2016 03:13 (eight years ago) link
Soooooo yeah I think this might be the best thing Sheff's done so far.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Wednesday, 7 September 2016 09:20 (eight years ago) link
I think this is the best Okkervil album.
― akm, Thursday, 8 September 2016 12:23 (eight years ago) link
(i'm going to listen to the new one soon)
"black sheep boy #4" -- wow, still so moving after all these years
― have you ever even read The Drudge Report? Have you gone on Stormfron (k3vin k.), Saturday, 10 September 2016 05:37 (eight years ago) link
i can't stop listening to this album
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Saturday, 10 September 2016 16:01 (eight years ago) link
this is not as much of a departure sonically as people were making it sound but it feels fresh regardless
― ciderpress, Saturday, 10 September 2016 17:10 (eight years ago) link
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.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 10 September 2016 18:33 (eight years ago) link
I'm in love with "Mary On a Wave," love that almost-groove.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 10 September 2016 18:37 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnXEtu6nwFY
did we know that scott walker covered "black sheep boy"??
― have you ever even read The Drudge Report? Have you gone on Stormfron (k3vin k.), Saturday, 10 September 2016 20:07 (eight years ago) link
yeah! everyone loves tim hardin
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Saturday, 10 September 2016 20:09 (eight years ago) link
oh duh i forgot the song "BSB" was a tim hardin cover
― have you ever even read The Drudge Report? Have you gone on Stormfron (k3vin k.), Saturday, 10 September 2016 20:09 (eight years ago) link
not really feeling this on first listen :( will definitely try again
― have you ever even read The Drudge Report? Have you gone on Stormfron (k3vin k.), Sunday, 11 September 2016 19:12 (eight years ago) link
It took me a few listens. Hell, it took me 5 or 6 to make sense of "Call Yourself Renee" as the second track.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Sunday, 11 September 2016 20:22 (eight years ago) link
that's a v good interview, thx!
Sheff is more invested in interrogating why Okkervil River was able to thrive, not in spite of its occasionally vengeful and violent music, but because of it. Specifically, whether they helped reinforce what Sheff describes as “the Harry Potter narrative,” in which we’re all misunderstood wizards stuffed in the Cupboard Under the Stairs, waiting for our magical capacities to be discovered. There certainly was a revenge-of-the-nerds element to mid-aughts indie culture, from TV to film to Black Sheep Boy itself, which generated comparisons to contemporaries like Bright Eyes, the Decemberists, the National and Arcade Fire — feverishly literary groups armed with seriously uncool instruments that cloaked their darker undertones with an invigorating, us-against-the-world mentality. Sheff worries about “the men out there who feel like the world stiffed them, that they’re owed something,” extrapolating this mindset to a kind of “fascism of superhero movies.” “I started to see my preoccupation with jealousy and what I felt my work deserved.”
"For Real" is def a song that grabbed my attention back then, but now my favorite record is Away, and that's more or less solo Sheff, so not too concerned with the band name
New album is v good, hightlights include title track and In The Thick of It
this is sad:
he estimates that he’ll end his East and West coast tours approximately $5-7,000 in the red. He expects to lose double that going to Europe
― corrs unplugged, Monday, 19 December 2022 14:48 (one year ago) link