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Okkervil River, "Black Sheep Boy"
With Black Sheep Boy,Okkervil River offer their first consistently brilliant albumresounding with themes and cascading with conceits. Neutral Milk Hotelseem to be an oft-repeated and more often misapplied referencepresently, but the structure of Okkervil's latest album unmistakablymimics In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
Jagjaguwar
This is not to say thatit is a facsimile. Rather, it is a flirtation with the structures andtropes put forth by Jeff Mangum and company. Consider the evidence: thequiescent initial invocations of each band's protagonist (for NMH, theTwo-Headed Boy; for Okkervil, the Black Sheep Boy) occur in the firstsong and then roar grandiosely into attention-grabbing second songs.The protagonists both rear their (abhorrent) heads throughout the songson their respective albums, causing listeners to shudder and rejoice atthe same time. Songs are all similarly connected by common threads andthemes, be they musical or lyrical. The communion between NMH andOkkervil goes beyond simply the brash employment of brass instrumentsin certain songs, such as in the waltz-like "A King and a Queen." Songson both albums gracefully flow into one another, perhaps takingOkkervil's aquatic moniker too literally on one side. Okkervil River'smeditation for this album is the Black Sheep Boy's (it's unclearwhether it is a proper name and should be capitalized, or rather anarchetype and thus lower-case; excuse my presumption but I am goingwith the proper name and upper-case solution) modern-day ostracism andrejection. He seems to be some modern hybrid of the ancient figures ofAnubis, Dionysus, and the Cretan Minotaur. If the artwork on the albumis any indication, he is a grotesque abomination yet is as undeniablyfascinating as a savage automobile accident. The album begins with theeponymous "Black Sheep Boy," a proper intro of one minute and eighteenseconds which elegiacally introduces the main character with a lightcollection of guitars, strings, keyboards, and brushed percussion. Theintro seamlessly elides into the first real track, the name of whichfittingly is "For Real." Even at a first cursory listen, the song willtransfix you. It enters methodically with repetitive and monotonepluckings only to have the guitars and drums crash in unexpectedly andunannounced without breaking stride. Will Sheff's voice is occasionallystrained to its upper reaches, on the precipice of cracking for themore sonorous parts of the song. The effect is startling without beinggrating or abrasive. By the end of the song, Sheff's vocals areshattering delicately all over the place and the raw energy released bythis is pleasing and welcome. The song's energy then decays into thedulcet lethargy of "In a Radio Song" which meditates wistfully for overfive minutes. It is the gentle eddies of placid waters to the class 5rapids of "For Real." Lyrically, Okkervil River are formidablestorytellers. Their narratives sing of imperfect lives, unrequitedloves, and the darkness of forced hermitage. The ponderous "A Stone"decries the injustice of a girl who chooses to love the callous andunadoring rather than the dedicated and true. Towards the end, there isa remarkable moment when the instruments drop into the background andthe vocals emerge to narrate this allegorical and modernized fairy taleabout stones and queens and flowers. Sheff starts to insert more andmore syllables into each line (more than would normally be seemly) inorder to economize and fit the story into just one or two verses. Theresult is a two-tiered narrative which weaves itself elegantly into thestructure of the song's large ensemble/instrumentation. Like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,there is a satisfying alternation of rockers with ballads. Energy isexpended and recouped throughout the album and requires intercedingsongs of quietude to buffer the harsher numbers. "So Come Back, I amWaiting," the penultimate song, captures both of these loud and softextremes in its pure majesty and does a fine job of condensing andsummarizing the themes from the album. In past efforts, Okkervil Riverhave hit on a mixture of successes and, well, non-successes on theiralbums. Black Sheep Boy is the full realization of the band'ssuccess into a musical suite of eleven well-formed songs, bearing noneof the ugly horns or murderous tendencies of the album's titlecharacter.
Jagjaguwar
This is not to say thatit is a facsimile. Rather, it is a flirtation with the structures andtropes put forth by Jeff Mangum and company. Consider the evidence: thequiescent initial invocations of each band's protagonist (for NMH, theTwo-Headed Boy; for Okkervil, the Black Sheep Boy) occur in the firstsong and then roar grandiosely into attention-grabbing second songs.The protagonists both rear their (abhorrent) heads throughout the songson their respective albums, causing listeners to shudder and rejoice atthe same time. Songs are all similarly connected by common threads andthemes, be they musical or lyrical. The communion between NMH andOkkervil goes beyond simply the brash employment of brass instrumentsin certain songs, such as in the waltz-like "A King and a Queen." Songson both albums gracefully flow into one another, perhaps takingOkkervil's aquatic moniker too literally on one side. Okkervil River'smeditation for this album is the Black Sheep Boy's (it's unclearwhether it is a proper name and should be capitalized, or rather anarchetype and thus lower-case; excuse my presumption but I am goingwith the proper name and upper-case solution) modern-day ostracism andrejection. He seems to be some modern hybrid of the ancient figures ofAnubis, Dionysus, and the Cretan Minotaur. If the artwork on the albumis any indication, he is a grotesque abomination yet is as undeniablyfascinating as a savage automobile accident. The album begins with theeponymous "Black Sheep Boy," a proper intro of one minute and eighteenseconds which elegiacally introduces the main character with a lightcollection of guitars, strings, keyboards, and brushed percussion. Theintro seamlessly elides into the first real track, the name of whichfittingly is "For Real." Even at a first cursory listen, the song willtransfix you. It enters methodically with repetitive and monotonepluckings only to have the guitars and drums crash in unexpectedly andunannounced without breaking stride. Will Sheff's voice is occasionallystrained to its upper reaches, on the precipice of cracking for themore sonorous parts of the song. The effect is startling without beinggrating or abrasive. By the end of the song, Sheff's vocals areshattering delicately all over the place and the raw energy released bythis is pleasing and welcome. The song's energy then decays into thedulcet lethargy of "In a Radio Song" which meditates wistfully for overfive minutes. It is the gentle eddies of placid waters to the class 5rapids of "For Real." Lyrically, Okkervil River are formidablestorytellers. Their narratives sing of imperfect lives, unrequitedloves, and the darkness of forced hermitage. The ponderous "A Stone"decries the injustice of a girl who chooses to love the callous andunadoring rather than the dedicated and true. Towards the end, there isa remarkable moment when the instruments drop into the background andthe vocals emerge to narrate this allegorical and modernized fairy taleabout stones and queens and flowers. Sheff starts to insert more andmore syllables into each line (more than would normally be seemly) inorder to economize and fit the story into just one or two verses. Theresult is a two-tiered narrative which weaves itself elegantly into thestructure of the song's large ensemble/instrumentation. Like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,there is a satisfying alternation of rockers with ballads. Energy isexpended and recouped throughout the album and requires intercedingsongs of quietude to buffer the harsher numbers. "So Come Back, I amWaiting," the penultimate song, captures both of these loud and softextremes in its pure majesty and does a fine job of condensing andsummarizing the themes from the album. In past efforts, Okkervil Riverhave hit on a mixture of successes and, well, non-successes on theiralbums. Black Sheep Boy is the full realization of the band'ssuccess into a musical suite of eleven well-formed songs, bearing noneof the ugly horns or murderous tendencies of the album's titlecharacter.samples:
