#27 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

Away by Okkervil River

Will Sheff, the driver (and lead singer) behind Okkervil River, is sad. Or, at least I think he is. The band’s eighth album, Away, is dripping is depression. This is not foreign territory for the band. Black Sheep Boy, their 2005 album, leaves you with the feeling you’ve been sitting under a dark thundercloud for 45 minutes.

But this can be a good thing — I love hearing an album that makes me feel things, as Away does. It’s ok that those feelings are mostly ones of concern for Sheff’s well-being, but I find that’s often the case with musicians who really put their all into their music.

Take the video above, for instance. It’s for a song called “Okkervil River R.I.P.” Sheff’s lyrics tend to be obtuse, so it’s impossible to know for sure what the song means, but it’s easy to draw some conclusions from that title. Will this be the last Okkervil River album? It could be that this song, which happens to also be the first song on the album, is about the fact that the only common part of the band from previous Okkervil River albums is Sheff himself. Every other performer on the album is new.

But Sheff’s voice is still his voice, and if you’ve liked previous OR albums, I recommend giving this one a listen.

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28. case/lang/veirs by case/lang/veirs
29. Love Letter for Fire by Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop
30. Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future by Underworld
31. Preoccupations by Preoccupations

#13 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River

The last time Okkervil River appeared on the Calendar, they were bringing up the rear with their less-than-stellar offering, I Am Very Far. I thought that album would be the band’s swan song. They’d had a great run in the mid-oughts, with Black Sheep Boy and The Stage Names, but with 2008’s The Stand-Ins the band started to head south, for what I thought would be their final hurrah. I’m so glad to report that I was wrong, as here they are again, this time in the much more favorable #13 spot, with their seventh full-length album The Silver Gymnasium.

This is a great and apparently very personal album for lead singer Will Sheff. There are multiple videos talking about the genesis of this album, and now there’s even a Kickstarter campaign to make a short film about my favorite song from the album, “Down Down The Deep River.”

This is a classic Okkervil River song. If you liked Black Sheep Boy, then this album is for you. It lacks the bombast of songs like “Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe,” but there are plenty of hooks to sink your teeth into. The above video is for a remix of the song “Stay Young.” While I like the original song more than the remix, this version is still quite interesting. I linked to the original version video a month ago, as well as a lyric video for “It Was My Season” back in June, both of which are well worth checking out.

Those songs should be more than enough to convince you this is a renewed band. Sheff seems revived and ready to tackle the world. Pick up the album and there’s a chance you will be, too.

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14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

2012 Musical Bacon Calendar
2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

While this new video from Okkervil River isn’t anything to write home about, the song featured in the video is. The Silver Gymnasium, the new album from Will Sheff’s band of misfits is seriously growing on me. It’s the first Okkervil record I’ve really connected with since The Stage Names, which came out six years ago. Horns, harmonica, vivid storytelling with poppy musical hooks — you really can’t go wrong.

I’ve said it before: I don’t hear lyrics. I can listen to a song over and over and over again, to the point where I can sing every word of the song, and not ever have understood the meaning of the words I’m singing. Consequently, I’m terrible at making “emotionally meaningful” mix tapes. I’ll put songs on a mixtape that sound great together and blend well from one to the next, but then be told by the receiver “those songs you put on my mixtape were all so dark!” Heartbreak, death and mayhem, and I’ll just not have heard it until it was plainly told to me.

Which puts me in a strange position when confronted with a lyric video, such as this new Okkervil River video for their song “It Was My Season” from their forthcoming album The Silver Gymnasium, due out September 3. Here, I am presented with the lyrics in an unavoidable fashion. I can’t watch the video without reading and understanding the lyrics. And I hate to say it, but I think it makes the song sound worse to me. I’m fairly confident that this new song is actually quite good. But, because I now have read all the lyrics, and their nonsensical, somewhat strangely comic nature, I don’t like the song as much.

I’m very curious if I’m the only one that reacts this way about songs. Do tell, won’t you? But don’t sing it to me, because I won’t hear you.