Okkervil River – The Stand Ins

Jagjaguwar 2008

Rating: 9/10

The Stand Ins, Texas indie-rock outfit Okkervil River’s fifth album, is the planned second half of a double album project that began with 4th record The Stage Names, but it more than stands on its own. Continuing the theme of musicians on tour, The Stand Ins is lyrically bleak and depressing, despite the often-upbeat instrumentation, and singer and writer Will Sheff is in fine form. Just check out opener “Lost Coastlines,” where Sheff laments “every night finds us rocking and rolling on waves wild and wide, well we have lost our way, nobody’s gonna say it outright,” along “Lust for Life”-esque bass and drum line before exploding into an energetic outro of “la la la’s.”

With song titles like “Singer Songwriter,” “Pop Lie,” and “On Tour With Zykos,” it’s not hard to figure out the theme of the record, but never once does Okkervil River bore or weigh down. “Singer Songwriter” is an effective country-rocker about artistic pretension that is actually quite entertaining if listened to closely (sample lyric: “you come from wealth / yeah, you got wealth / what a bitch, they didn’t give you much else”), while “Blue Tulip”’s miniscule details, from a simple yet intense lyric by Sheff to the gently tinkling piano, make a lasting image with just a few short strokes.

While Okkervil’s decision to include three instrumental interludes evenly spaced throughout the album is, I suppose, a way of upholding the stage/tour theme, the trio’s lack of substance only serves to keep the album from flowing along properly. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to be a result of any lack of ideas; from the raucous, driving power pop of “Pop Lie” to the ambivalent melodrama of the rather animated “Calling And Not Calling My Ex,” The Stand Ins is a fantastic piece of lyrical and musical ideas combining in ways that puts Okkervil River right up there with the Decemberists. Here’s to the rigors and pains of the touring life!