Shearwater

Thieves (Misra)

Five songs. That’s it? Sorry, that just won’t do. Shearwater has followed up one of last year’s most magical local albums, Winged Life, with this five-song EP. It expands the at times brittle, at times spacious folk sound of Winged Life, but just barely, with moments of delicate sorrow offset by surges of anthemic beauty. Led by Jonathan Meiburg and Will Sheff of Okkervil River, Shearwater has devised a genre unto itself. Through the use of a variety of keyboards, violin, vibraphone, dulcimer, and banjo along with the rock standard guitar, bass, and drums, they create soundscapes of remorse and the mundane, perfect for windswept winter mornings and shimmering summer days. The influences of Nick Drake and the Waterboys still peek through, especially on the stark “You’re the Coliseum” and soaring “Mountain Laurel,” but it’s just a tease that at just past 17 minutes leaves the listener wanting a whole lot more. No, no. This just won’t do.

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This article appears in February 4 • 2005.

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