about contributors submissions book series advertising contests Media Center PopMatters Picks
|
|
Okkervil RiverThe President's Dead(Jagjaguwar) US release date: 5 December 2006 UK release date: Available as import by Justin Cober-LakePopMatters Interviews Editor Will Sheff’s on a streak of songs as good as anyone’s written in a while, and Okkervil River’s latest 12-inch “The President’s Dead” keeps the pace up between the Black Sheep Boy releases and the next album due out this summer. Where the last couple releases have held almost unbearable intensity (stopping just short of melodrama), these two tracks drop the musical pitch far down, without releasing the lyrical intensity. The a-side delivers assassination news and meditations on beauty in mortality on a happy little pop tune; the b-side, “The Room I’m Hiding In” moves back to country terrain with a classic weepy steel guitar sound and a controlled delivery, disguising the loss and fear that the narrator lives in. That sort of juxtaposition in itself isn’t that unique an approach, but Okkervil River executes it very well, describing “no better state to cease to exist” as a condition that might be acceptable. Sheff the vocalist does sound like a “small quiet man” with “no wars to win,” toning things down from BSB‘s strained tumult. The conflicting feelings evoked by lyrics, music, and delivery make this quick 12-inch an economic study in layered songwriting, keeping Sheff and Okkervil River’s flow alive.
— 1 May 2007Related articles
Review: Okkervil River: The Stand InsJoseph Carver08.Sep.08 Okkervil River is poised for greatness and The Stand Ins may very well be the record to take them there. 
Review: Okkervil River: The Stage NamesDan Raper08.Aug.07 Okkervil River's new album is filled with moments that remind us again why this band is considered one of the finest indie rock groups in the US.
|
|
