I pre-ordered the new Okkervil album about a month ago after reading about all the nifty add-ons that one could buy. I only got conned into buying the lyric book, which looks nice, but is kind of redundant as the lyrics are beautifully printed within the album sleeve. Furthermore, the book is all out of order making it hard to navigate along with the tunes.
I was hesitant to agree with the text included on the plastic wrap of the album. It read:
I Am Very Far is a startling break form anything Okkervil River has done before: an album that plays not only as a lush, seamless epic, but also as the most deeply personal effort of their career.
Okkervil River have been a band near and dear for the last three years. It started with a light prod from an ex, but it grew to a full on love affair with the gorgeous roller coaster album Black Sheep Boy. Three albums later we stand in front of their first album in two years titled I Am Very Far. This album is absolutely flawless, it doesn't have tracks that stand out as the previous albums so subtly push through, it has tunes that flourish and dazzle. The adjectives "lush" and "seamless" are terrific ways of describing this album as the songs are very intricate and they intertwine pretty effortlessly. This is probably what happens when you've been around as long as Okkervil River have.
I think this album does a far better job of blending together tunes than their previous release The Stand-Ins. Really in listening to The Stand-Ins, I felt like I was getting ripped off because there were three instrumental tracks that left the album with six or seven songs only. I Am Very Far has a long stretch of tunes, closing in at thirteen marathon tunes. Definitely not too much of a good thing, just enough.
I would add that this album is absolutely sophisticated, they've definitely matured a great deal as a band without losing their poppy sound. Lively acoustic guitars aren't far - the tune "Rider" will be a live show crowd pleaser, but beyond just a guitar it has a great host of lush build-ups that make it significantly more fresh, more musically respectable.
This band'll never let me down.
Well, glad to see you enjoyed it :)
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely a bit of a change of pace for them on this album, but it's definitely a bit of a welcomed change.
I as well felt a bit underwhelmed with The Stand Ins, but that was mostly due to the weak second half. I didn't have issue with the duration as much as the tracks were just...weak, compared to some of their previous work. Some of those tracks have sounded better after a bunch of listens("Calling and Not Calling my Ex", Pop Lie), and some are still flat(Bruce Wayne Campbell, On Tour With Zykos). First half was dazzling, second half kinda blew. The Stage names had similar consistency issues IMO but it wasn't to that degree, it wasn't an entire half of an album, and more importantly, it closed well.
Love the artwork too. Has a kind of woodcut style(which I adore), which gives the album bonus marks.
It's all about embossed packaging!!! I'm a fairly tactile person, so this was a thrill for my sense.
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