{"id":41118,"date":"2008-09-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-stand-ins\/"},"modified":"2008-09-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-18T00:00:00","slug":"the-stand-ins","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-stand-ins\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stand Ins"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Stand Ins, <\/i>the latest from Austin-based indie-darlings Okkervil River — who have been fine-tuning the art of coupling dense, wordy lyrics with straight-up, swaggering rock \u2018n\u2019 roll since 1998 — comes as a follow-up to last year\u2019s breakthrough disc, The Stage Names. <\/i>Originally conceived as a double album, this collection picks up right where John Allyn Smith sailed away on The Stage Names, <\/i>from the matched-up cover arts to the continuation of themes of celebrity, music, and art and the oftentimes crushing reality behind them all But where The Stage Names <\/i>was a whirlwind of emotion and anthems, frontman Will Sheff\u2019s cerebral sentiments meshing with sweeping instrumentation, this disc has lost a little of that momentum. For all its energy, there\u2019s always an undercurrent of bleakness, a mood of cynicism and disappointment that no amount of shimmering guitar work and soaring vocals can quite buoy.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

At only eight songs (and three short instrumental interludes), the disc nevertheless feels jam-packed, leaning towards epic with the average track clocking in at five minutes. \u201cLost Coastlines\u201d begins things by bringing back former collaborator and Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg for an unexpectedly rollicking duet. Things start slow with light touches of guitar and banjo, until a jaunty bassline, layers of guitars, and Sheff\u2019s distinctive, rising croon kick in, all creating a wonderfully symphonic ode to uncharted waters: \u201cAnd every night finds us rocking and rolling on waves wild and wide \/ Well, we have lost our way \/ Nobody\u2019s gonna say it outright \/ Just go la, la la la,\u201d Sheff sings as the song barrels towards its close, and this might be as good an opener as \u201cOur Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe.\u201d <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Where The Stage Names\u2019 <\/i>aforementioned \u201cOur Life\u201d <\/i>traversed crappy movies trying to pass as brilliance, \u201cSinger-Songwriter\u201d comes as one long dig at hipster musicians attempting to do the same, spat out in Sheff\u2019s bitter vocal (\u201cAnd this thing you once did might have dazzled the kids \/ But the kids once grown up are gonna walk away \/ And your world is gonna change nothing\u201d).\u00a0 The unrelenting acidity of the lyrics can become a little numbing, but the buoyant alt-country groove steps in to elevate things.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

While every track on The Stage Names <\/i>seemed slotted into place, here things sometimes get top-heavy, stumbling under the sheer weight of Sheff\u2019s lyrics. Closer \u201cBruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed On The Roof Of The Chelsea Hotel, 1979\u201d is a mouthful, to say the least, and has nothing on the thrilling \u201cJohn Allyn Smith Sails.\u201d It begins well, with Sheff wearily mumbling, \u201cFuck long hours sick with singing \/ Sick with singing the same songs,\u201d but, like \u201cCalling And Not Calling My Ex,\u201d there\u2019s some essential energy missing, and it\u2019s all a bit of a meander. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

But when Sheff is good, he\u2019s truly brilliant, his lyrics jamming in enough alliteration and internal rhyme to make an English major swoon and his voice painfully revealing. \u201cOn Tour With Zykos\u201d tones down the rush of guitars, instead trading in gentle strings and twinkling piano melodies to pair with the hauntingly listless lyrics.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, \u201cPop Lie\u201d mixes fuzzy riffs, clanging drums, and a jubilant bass rhythm from Patrick Pestorius to create this album\u2019s most dynamic moment, a cynical revelation of pop-singer deception ultimately dedicated to \u201cthe woman who concentrated \/ All of her love to find \/ That she’d wasted it on \/ The liar who lied in this song.\u201d <\/o:p><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s album centerpiece \u201cBlue Tulip\u201d that affirms Okkervil<\/st1:placename> River<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>\u2019s undeniable power. It\u2019s reminiscent of \u201cA Girl In Port,\u201d a slow-burning six-minute affair with stunning guitars, cascading drums, and, of course, Sheff\u2019s signature visceral lyrics. \u201cI’ve got my ear against the screen \/ I\u2019ll feel your feelings crackling \/ For every single inch of me, I’m going to make you mean it \/ With every single cell of me, I’m going to make you mean the words you sigh,\u201d comes his strained, soaring vocals as the song dissolves in a thrumming, sparkling haze — it\u2019s stuff like this that\u2019s worth any misstep along the way. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Stand Ins <\/i>only really falters in direct comparison to the more dynamic Stage Names, <\/i>though this bleaker, edgier approach certainly has its own strengths; by no means is this a collection of B-sides tarted up for release. All the hallmarks of Okkervil<\/st1:placename> River<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> — superb lyrics, tight yet surprising instrumentation, Sheff\u2019s intriguingly flawed vocals — are here, and they\u2019re still breathtaking. <\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":29528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8088],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41118","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-okkervil-river","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41118"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}