Okkervil River Reviewed

Okkervil River

Black Sheep Boy (Jagjaguwar)

Every one of us at some point or another has felt discarded, unwanted, withered. We stroll cautiously, head down, into empty rooms, always with eyes on our backs. Aggressive in truth and worth, Okkervil River's fourth LP, Black Sheep Boy, traces this displacement. As the opening title cut, penned by "If I Were a Carpenter" author Tim Hardin, reintroduces Will Sheff, the poet, back from the road, it quickly fades into the volatile "For Real": "And there's nothing quite like the blinding light when that curtain's cast aside," wails Sheff, his lyrics as poignant as his scratchy voice. It's pure emotion, dramatic reality, the portrait of an outcast. The force of Okkervil's last LP, '03's Down the River of Golden Dreams, is strengthened and stretched on Black Sheep Boy, bursting with the heaviness of heart. The culmination of brass, strings, and simple acoustic guitar orchestrates those cacophonous sounds of candor. Glancing in the direction of Wilco without the migraines, Sheff & Co. launch into "Black," a protective tale of anger and repression. As "A King and a Queen" waltzes through a muted bed of horns and whiskey, "A Stone" loudly whispers the saga of a dismayed lover. "So Come Back, I Am Waiting" wraps the album up in a promise, a building allegory of biblical tone. These are life stories, tested by time, and if Sheff is that Black Sheep Boy, we're all his lambs, lying calmly, soothed by his broken heart, refusing to be discarded again.