Joe runs through every album on his iPod, mostly in alphabetical order, and offers some brief thoughts. Check out previous columns HERE.
I have never been able to get into this album, and trust me, I've tried. But there's always been that lingering suspicion that the only reason I don't particular enjoy it is because it didn't reach the heights of Okkervil River's previous album, The Silver Gymnasium, my #1 album of 2013. But here we are, writing about Away, putting it under a microscope, so let's give it one last try. Let's finally answer the question: Did I not give this album a fair shot, or is Away, in its truest essence, simply subpar?
Let's start with the theme, and that theme is very clearly DEATH. I mean, the first song is called "Okkervil River R.I.P.," so you should know full well the theme from the opening verses. And this isn't one of those album whose lyrics are dour and morbid but the music is contradictorily fun and upbeat. Don't let "Okkervil River R.I.P."'s uplifting back half trick you. It's an outlier. This is a sad album with sad lyrics and sad music.
And yeah, we don't even have to elaborate on the fact that this is probably why Away doesn't resonate with me like Okkervil's previous, happier albums. I like my music buoyant and hopeful, and this is certainly not that. But at the same time, there is something admirable about a band creating an album with purpose, and truly sticking to that purpose, even with the threat of killing the mood in the process.
This idea is exemplified nowhere as fully as in the song "Comes Indiana Through the Smoke." Apparently, this is a song about frontman Will Sheff's grandfather, and it weaves together images of the grandfather's old warship, the U.S.S. Indiana, on which he fought in WWII, and images of his grandfather slowly passing away in hospice. That right there is a story I can empathize with. A song done right with a story like that would bring me to tears, thinking about my own grandpop in hospice, slowly dying before my eyes. This makes me truly regretful that "Comes Indiana" is not a song done right. The chorus is a little boring. The music can't match the lyrics. It falls flat. That's so goddamn disappointing.
Another song like this is "She Would Look for Me," which features a pretty gorgeous piccolo part, and not much else. It's an agonizingly slow song about finding your loved ones in the afterlife. It's about death, and it sounds like it. "Call Yourself Renee" is about three minutes (too long) of chill acoustic jamming and soft conga beats; it's Easy Listening for a listener who doesn't want anything "easy" from his favorite bands. "Days Spent Floating" was literally described as an "afterthought" by Sheff, and it shows.
I'm naming the songs during which Away stumbles, badly, and that's to illustrate that there was a reason why I consider Away the worst album in Okkervil River's discography. But I'll admit, there are songs on here that I was able to hone in on during this listen, and appreciate, and even come to really enjoy. There are songs, in other words, that make the album worth it, even if you have to slog through 25 minutes of flute-led death metaphors to get there.
"The Industry" is way more upbeat, if not quite rollicking, and it's an early standout. This song suggests that maybe, more so than death, the album is about "losing what you had," whether it's losing grandparents to old age or losing friends to just how life happens (friends come in and out of your life, etc.). The message resonated with me because the music was there. It was up-tempo and had a nice beat behind it and took the sadsack lyrics and elevated them just enough to make me appreciate it.
The best song on Away is the nearly eight-minute "Frontman in Heaven." This is the only song on the entire album that Will Sheff reaches those Okkervil River towering heights of old. The song is absolutely stuffed with lyrics, they keep coming and coming, and over its runtime, Sheff's energy keeps ratcheting higher and higher, by the end finally reaching the catharsis that the rest of Away is missing. The end of "Frontman in Heaven" absolutely makes worth the price of admission here.
So Okkervil River shows in "Frontman" that they can still hit those highs, so what's the deal? Why doesn't Away do the trick for me? We'll wrap up here with a quote from Will Sheff in describing how he tried to make Away different from his previous albums:
And mourning isn't the best way to enjoy an album.
Away is a slippery and whispery and ethereal album. It's hard to grasp. But I'm trying. I love Okkervil River, so even though it has died and has been reborn, I'll be along for the ride.
Away
Okkervil River
2016
I have never been able to get into this album, and trust me, I've tried. But there's always been that lingering suspicion that the only reason I don't particular enjoy it is because it didn't reach the heights of Okkervil River's previous album, The Silver Gymnasium, my #1 album of 2013. But here we are, writing about Away, putting it under a microscope, so let's give it one last try. Let's finally answer the question: Did I not give this album a fair shot, or is Away, in its truest essence, simply subpar?
Let's start with the theme, and that theme is very clearly DEATH. I mean, the first song is called "Okkervil River R.I.P.," so you should know full well the theme from the opening verses. And this isn't one of those album whose lyrics are dour and morbid but the music is contradictorily fun and upbeat. Don't let "Okkervil River R.I.P."'s uplifting back half trick you. It's an outlier. This is a sad album with sad lyrics and sad music.
And yeah, we don't even have to elaborate on the fact that this is probably why Away doesn't resonate with me like Okkervil's previous, happier albums. I like my music buoyant and hopeful, and this is certainly not that. But at the same time, there is something admirable about a band creating an album with purpose, and truly sticking to that purpose, even with the threat of killing the mood in the process.
This idea is exemplified nowhere as fully as in the song "Comes Indiana Through the Smoke." Apparently, this is a song about frontman Will Sheff's grandfather, and it weaves together images of the grandfather's old warship, the U.S.S. Indiana, on which he fought in WWII, and images of his grandfather slowly passing away in hospice. That right there is a story I can empathize with. A song done right with a story like that would bring me to tears, thinking about my own grandpop in hospice, slowly dying before my eyes. This makes me truly regretful that "Comes Indiana" is not a song done right. The chorus is a little boring. The music can't match the lyrics. It falls flat. That's so goddamn disappointing.
Another song like this is "She Would Look for Me," which features a pretty gorgeous piccolo part, and not much else. It's an agonizingly slow song about finding your loved ones in the afterlife. It's about death, and it sounds like it. "Call Yourself Renee" is about three minutes (too long) of chill acoustic jamming and soft conga beats; it's Easy Listening for a listener who doesn't want anything "easy" from his favorite bands. "Days Spent Floating" was literally described as an "afterthought" by Sheff, and it shows.
I'm naming the songs during which Away stumbles, badly, and that's to illustrate that there was a reason why I consider Away the worst album in Okkervil River's discography. But I'll admit, there are songs on here that I was able to hone in on during this listen, and appreciate, and even come to really enjoy. There are songs, in other words, that make the album worth it, even if you have to slog through 25 minutes of flute-led death metaphors to get there.
"The Industry" is way more upbeat, if not quite rollicking, and it's an early standout. This song suggests that maybe, more so than death, the album is about "losing what you had," whether it's losing grandparents to old age or losing friends to just how life happens (friends come in and out of your life, etc.). The message resonated with me because the music was there. It was up-tempo and had a nice beat behind it and took the sadsack lyrics and elevated them just enough to make me appreciate it.
The best song on Away is the nearly eight-minute "Frontman in Heaven." This is the only song on the entire album that Will Sheff reaches those Okkervil River towering heights of old. The song is absolutely stuffed with lyrics, they keep coming and coming, and over its runtime, Sheff's energy keeps ratcheting higher and higher, by the end finally reaching the catharsis that the rest of Away is missing. The end of "Frontman in Heaven" absolutely makes worth the price of admission here.
So Okkervil River shows in "Frontman" that they can still hit those highs, so what's the deal? Why doesn't Away do the trick for me? We'll wrap up here with a quote from Will Sheff in describing how he tried to make Away different from his previous albums:
“The Silver Gymnasium seems like a million years ago to me now... and I love that record. But I’ve also started to see how much of what I was doing was about externalizing, [about] pushing my artistic ambition out into the world. I had a deep, sad, mournful nostalgia for a time in my life. I knew that it was ridiculous to be nostalgic like this, and I knew that it was morbid, almost. But it was hurting me. So I wanted to really exorcise it, to really get down into the heart of where it was coming from and why I was feeling it and purge it all. I was almost creating a record as a form of catharsis.”I think this quote kind of pulls everything together for me. The "death" permeating Away is actually the death of Okkervil River as we previously knew it (i.e. "Okkervil River R.I.P."). Stuff like Sheff's grandfather dying and meeting Judey in heaven are metaphors for the death and rebirth of the band. As this is Sheff's band, that's his prerogative, and I can appreciate his commitment to the revamping. But I think I am uncertain about Away because it really is the sound of one of my favorite bands dying. I know that the nostalgia of The Silver Gymnasium was "hurting" Sheff, but that same pervasive nostalgia was one of the reasons I fucking loved The Silver Gymnasium so goddamn much. And that's gone. Away proves it. I mourn.
And mourning isn't the best way to enjoy an album.
Away is a slippery and whispery and ethereal album. It's hard to grasp. But I'm trying. I love Okkervil River, so even though it has died and has been reborn, I'll be along for the ride.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
If this album sounds interesting, try this song: "Mary on a Wave"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stray Observations
- I didn't talk about "Judey on a Street" above, mainly because I couldn't decide whether I like the song or not. It's probably the most interesting song on the album, in that it's all build-up, and absolutely hints at the idea that it could explode into those old Okkervil River colossal moments. But it never does! Even after seven goddamn minutes! I enjoy all seven minutes of this song, but by the end, I just have blue balls.
- As tepid as this column has been about current Okkervil River, many people will attempt to tell you that the band has been tepid for years longer than I would have you believe. I stand alone among my peers in championing The Silver Gymnasium as one of the decade's finest achievements, and I'll defend their previous effort, I Am Very Far, against all detractors. All this said, all that defending looked pretty dumb when even I couldn't argue that Away was an average album at best.
- A cool fact about "Comes Indiana Through the Smoke" is that the trumpet featured on the song is the actual trumpet that Sheff's grandfather, "Bud" Moore, played when he was a jazz musician.
- ALBUM COVER: As with the rest of Okkervil's albums, the front cover was designed by artist William Schaff (not to be confused with frontman Will Sheff). It features a bucolic forest scene at sunset, with various birds flying past. According to this Consequence of Sound article, many of the birds featured are extinct, which alludes to the various themes of death throughout the album. (The author of the CoS article was all pumped to question Sheff about the album art, but then never ended up doing so, which is just another example of how shitty that website is, but I digress.)
- "Days Spent Floating" was apparently written by Sheff throughout the whole month of October, when every morning he would write down the first sentence that popped into his head. The idea sounds cool in theory, but it's a shitty song.
- "The Industry" features the hilarious lyric, "All while you're out there, grinding on some poor girl / Who is backstage at the 6.8 rock fest," referencing the Pitchfork review score of The Silver Gymnasium. Is this the first time Okkervil has referenced a previous Pitchfork score in one of their songs? It was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't remember, so I reached out to my internet buddies on r/indieheads, who pointed out that the song I was thinking of was El Vy's great "I'm the Man to Be," which features the lyric "scored an 8.6 on a fucking par 4." Thank you Reddit.
NEXT TIME: Axis: Bold as Love by the Jimi Hendrix Experience (our final album that starts with the letter A!!!!)
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