- Reflections on Okkervil River's growing discography. NB: since I first published this a lot more promotional material for Okkervil River's upcoming album The Silver Gymnasium has been released, pretty much confirming all my thematic speculations. For a particularly cool promo, check out this illustrated, interactive map.
I regularly make the
mistake of recommending my favourite bands to friends and acquaintances. It seems like an excellent opportunity to share music; a great chance to debate with informed individuals whose varying
opinions can enhance our mutual experience.
In reality, however, every time I am simultaneously bitchy, overbearing, sensitive and
aggressive. Even if new listeners agree with my taste, I tend to get over-protective and
jealous, or terrified that I'm being lied
to in order to spare my feelings. So, rather than start a blog in which I attempt to spread musical love, I started one in which in which I belittle the opinions of others.
This time, however,
I'm going to expose myself and my taste. I want to share my thoughts on the
first track released from Okkervil River's latest album, The Silver Gymnasium. The track is called It Was My Season and a promo video for it has recently gone online. Now, I get particularly aggressive about Okkervil River. The band's leader, Will Sheff, is our generation's greatest lyricist and I'll block my ears and hum obscure
early Okkervil River b-sides if anyone tries to tell me otherwise. The Silver Gymanisum is set to be released on the 3rd of September. My birthday. It's pretty much for me.
I have to admit, however, that I was a little apprehensive when I first heard the track and read the lyrics. The Silver Gymnasium will be the band's 7th LP, and their 6th - I Am Very Far - was a dangerous
record. It was the first of the band's
albums to be produced solely by Sheff. The man had a fucking field day. In an
interview with Spin, Sheff explained that Piratess features ripping paper and
peeling rolls of duct tape as percussive sound effects. Sheff went on to say that for
White Shadow Waltz "Recording the song was fun though. File cabinets were
thrown across the room, there was screaming, things breaking". I'm not
even going to attempt to summarise Sheff's explanation of how Piratess'
"guitar" solo was constructed:
"In the middle of the song
there's a solo that I created by fast-forwarding and rewinding a cassette back
and forth in a big cheap boombox.
It took awhile to figure out how
to "play" the boombox to the point where it felt vaguely melodious.
Once I was done, I had Brian Cassidy -- our ex-guitarist who still works with
us pretty regularly -- sit down and chart out the cassette "solo" on
sheet music -- as if it was this carefully written piece -- and then exactly
double it on electric guitar. It was hard for him to do, because there are all
these pitch-bends that come from the irregularity of a boombox, and he had to
match them by bending his guitar strings exactly in time with the
cassette."
I don't know if the
track grew on me or in the end my love for the band caused me to be willfully
blind to the goddamn pretentiousness of it all. Whatever it may be, I'd highly
recommend I Am Very Far. I would never advise that a newcomer to the band starts here, but
it's definitely a compelling addition to Okkervil River's catalogue. When a band is at album number 6 and year 13, it's important to try new things. I have increasingly less time for the "the first album is always the best album" contingent. It's boring to treat an artist's albums as if they're in competition somehow, or to rate them against each other all the time.
Dull album comparisons have been going on for decades. People lost their shit when Bob Dylan went electric. Titus Andronicus went a little classic rock for 2012's Local Business and the album was branded one of the biggest let downs of 2012 by Pitchfork readers. I enjoy a musical debate as much as the next guy (unless it's about Okkervil River), but constantly putting album's down for not being as good as their predecessors isn't healthy for music or for its listeners. It's okay not to like an album like Titus' Local Business. It's okay to think it's not quite as good as their second album, The Monitor. It is not, however, okay to dislike it simply because it isn't The Monitor. Both are independent projects to be enjoyed separately for what they are.
In this way, I like that I Am Very Far is Okkervil's batshitmakesnosense production-wise album. It sits nicely in a large discography next to other albums which also represent specific, interesting things. Albums 4 and 5 - The Stage Names and The Stand Ins - are, broadly speaking, a double concept record dealing with the collateral damage caused by fame and the culture of celebrity. Black Sheep Boy, album number 3, surrounds the misadventures of its titular character. The album has a warped, fairy tale style, almost like a Tim Burton movie. Recurring themes include the likes of child abuse and kidnap. Rather than force these album's fight against one another, I like to view them as separate entities to be visited when the time is right.
So now at album number 7 and year 15, I think it'll be interesting to see where Okkervil River go next. I didn't really know I was expecting when I turned to It Was My Season. Despite my above moral crusade, I won't deny that I Am Very Far had left me with a vague fear gently prickling in the back of my mind. While it's important not to compare albums against each other too much, a bad album is still a bad album. Would The Silver Gymnasium see Sheff hurtle over the self-indulgent-production cliff? Would there be auto tuned dog barking? Gunshots for percussion (where you actually hear the victim die for, y'know, added authenticity), or worse still, slam poetry?
Dull album comparisons have been going on for decades. People lost their shit when Bob Dylan went electric. Titus Andronicus went a little classic rock for 2012's Local Business and the album was branded one of the biggest let downs of 2012 by Pitchfork readers. I enjoy a musical debate as much as the next guy (unless it's about Okkervil River), but constantly putting album's down for not being as good as their predecessors isn't healthy for music or for its listeners. It's okay not to like an album like Titus' Local Business. It's okay to think it's not quite as good as their second album, The Monitor. It is not, however, okay to dislike it simply because it isn't The Monitor. Both are independent projects to be enjoyed separately for what they are.
In this way, I like that I Am Very Far is Okkervil's batshitmakesnosense production-wise album. It sits nicely in a large discography next to other albums which also represent specific, interesting things. Albums 4 and 5 - The Stage Names and The Stand Ins - are, broadly speaking, a double concept record dealing with the collateral damage caused by fame and the culture of celebrity. Black Sheep Boy, album number 3, surrounds the misadventures of its titular character. The album has a warped, fairy tale style, almost like a Tim Burton movie. Recurring themes include the likes of child abuse and kidnap. Rather than force these album's fight against one another, I like to view them as separate entities to be visited when the time is right.
So now at album number 7 and year 15, I think it'll be interesting to see where Okkervil River go next. I didn't really know I was expecting when I turned to It Was My Season. Despite my above moral crusade, I won't deny that I Am Very Far had left me with a vague fear gently prickling in the back of my mind. While it's important not to compare albums against each other too much, a bad album is still a bad album. Would The Silver Gymnasium see Sheff hurtle over the self-indulgent-production cliff? Would there be auto tuned dog barking? Gunshots for percussion (where you actually hear the victim die for, y'know, added authenticity), or worse still, slam poetry?
Despite all that, I was pleasantly
surprised by the approachability of It Was My Season. The song is based on a
jaunty piano riff, with Sheff singing pretty high up in his register, but in a
comfortable way. Not in the borderline insane screamy way heard in albums like
Black Sheep Boy. While both styles have their own merits, I think soaring piano
rock suits the maturing Sheff quite well, as was displayed on I Am Very Far's We Need a Myth.
Something that did
catch my attention, however, was the simplicity of the track's subject matter. The song seems to be about a teenage love
affair. The references to an Atari games console place us in the late 80s/early
90s when Sheff himself was a teenager. On Sheff's website he explains "The Silver Gymnasium takes place in 1986, in a small town in New Hampshire." It all seems like a bit of a thematic step down for a band who can pull off a song entitled "Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel 1979" without a trace of irony. Nonetheless, "personal childhood record number 7" could be a vital addition to the Okkervil discography if handled properly. Perhaps the songs will be more viscerally, instinctively emotional, rather than intensely thought provoking as much of the band's other work is.
I'm going to try and take a lesson from my own preachy blogging and welcome The Silver Gymnasium with an open mind on its release in September.
I'm going to try and take a lesson from my own preachy blogging and welcome The Silver Gymnasium with an open mind on its release in September.
