Don't Look Back: Okkervil River

Don't Look Back will feature an artist with at least three albums released. I will review and rank the albums throughout a bands history. This installment will chart Okkervil River.

Okkervil River began as three high school friends in New Hampshire: Will Sheff (vocals, guitar), Zach Thomas (Bass, Mandolin), and Seth Warren (Drums). After a hiatus that saw the members go to college in different parts of the U.S., Will and Seth met up together in Austin, Texas, and Okkervil River was formed. The name comes from a Tatyana Tolstaya short story. Jonathan Meiburg (vocals, piano, guitar, etc.) would join that band soon after the release of their first work Stars To Small To Use, in 1999. Their current lineup is missing all these key members except Will Sheff. Zach Thomas left the band to help raise his first child. Jonathan Meiburg is now the front man and creative power behind the band Shearwater (which is also a great band). Seth left and lives in Wisconsin. Although most of the founding members of Okkervil River have departed, the main creative force in the band was always Will Sheff, so the Okkervil River name soldiers on.

If you want, Will has written a pretty in-depth history of the band on their website

Okkervil River has five albums.

5. The Stand-Ins (2008) Grooveshark
The Stand-ins is the ying to The Stage Names yang. It is about the people that never made it. The bar bands and opening acts. The songs are still epic and expansive, but it is hurt by the fact that it followed The Stage Names so quickly, and will probably always be overlooked because of that. Do not let that fool you though; there is some amazing songs on this album, even though it suffers from being uneven.
Highlights: Lost Coastlines, Blue Tulip, On Tour With Zykos





4. Down The River of Golden Dreams (2003) Grooveshark
Great album title (wink). Possibly the most beautiful Okkervil album, and also the most cohesive. This also leads to the songs on the album sounding very similar, which drags it down at points. A very lyrical album with many thought provoking songs. The War Criminal Rises and Speaks is chief among them.
Highlights: It Ends With A Fall, The War Criminal Rises and Speaks, Song About A Star

3. Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See (2002) Grooveshark
Okkervil River's worst album. But when you consider the strength of some of the individual songs on Don't Fall In Love... it's good far outweighs the bad. This album contains possibly the bands' best live song, Westfall. Westfall is a song Will Sheff wrote after hearing about two high school kids that were murdered in Austin. It tells that tale of one of the kids who murdered them, and his thought process, Possibly one of the most disturbing and haunting songs ever written.
Highlights: Red, Westfall, Okkervil River Song

2. The Stage Names (2007) Grooveshark
As I discussed earlier with The Stand-ins, The Stage Names is about becoming a popular artist and the trials and tribulations that come with it. Will Sheff certainly has a flair for the conceptual, doesn't he? Probably the best mix of listful love sons and upbeat rock songs that Okkervil has put together on an album to date. Songs about such varied topics as porn star Savannah (Savannah Smiles) and poet John Berryman (John Allyn Smith Sails) get across the point that stardom certainly isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
Highlights: Unless It Kicks, A Girl In Port, John Allyn Smith Sails

1.Black Sheep Boy (2005) Grooveshark
Will Sheff's masterpiece. Loosely based on the life of singer Tim Hardin (who originally wrote the title track). An immensely deep and emotional album. Every song has its own personal power and emotional weight to it. For Real stands out, along with earlier discussed Westfall, as Okkervil's most power song. Not only one of Okkervil's best albums, but one of the best albums of the decade.
Highlights: For Real, Get Big, A Stone, Song of Our So-Called Friend,
Ok, let's face it, pretty much the whole damn album is awesome.

One Last Thing: I can't end a post about Okkervil without talking about Will Schaff, the amazing artists who does their album artwork. Check him out here