2008 Favorites: Okkervil River/The Stand Ins

Will Sheff may turn his nose up at the term lit-rock, but when you're writing sequels to earlier records (complete with connecting cover art!), re-purposing "Slope John B" to eulogize Berryman, and intertwining the stories of your band into your music so much that it is impossible to separate them it's time to give up the ghost. You'd prefer prog-rock? Though the band has the musical muscle to stand out of the crowd (good enough for the exceptional Jonathan Meiburg to peel off without batting an eye), it's Sheff's literary preoccupation - and skill - that separates Okkervil River from it's peers. The motown metronome of "Lost Coastlines" is good enough to make you not realize the song has no chorus as Sheff's story of a wandering band (comprised of his wandering band) spills out. And when he does get around to writing a proper rock song ("Pop Lie") it's a dissection of what it means to make and listen to music . Popular music is lousy with deconstructions of itself, but who goes after the audience too ("...and you're lying when you sing along")? You're only playing that game if you've got more on your mind than just rocking out, so whatever term you like, let's call a spade a spade, shall we? Not that thats a bad thing. There will always be a place in rock music for the brainy kids who sound like they swallowed a thesaurus, because most of the time its an asset and not a liability.