Shearwater – Rook
Shearwater started out as side project of Will Sheff (Okkervil River) and Jonathan Meiburg. While Sheff is the frontman at Okkervil River the roles are turned over in Shearwater, where Meiburg is the lead singer and composer. Musically, both bands share the same love for indie sounds, with Okkervil leaning on the rock/power side and Shearwater on the instrumental/melodramatic side. After the success of 2006’s Palo Santo and the ever increasing role/influence of Meiburg on this side project, his announcement last month to leave Okkervil and concentrate fully on Shearwater was inevitable. Their new album Rook was officially released a couple of day ago (June 3) on Matador label (switched from Misra last year)
While Palo Santo was a great album with influences from the likes of Jeff Buckley, in Rook Meiburg is shifting away into more mellow tunes. From the start of the album you’ll notice that this is much more personal for Meiburg than anything he’s done in the past. The production has stripped away much of the noise and guitars and uses a wide variety of instruments that provide a more natural and atmospheric feeling. The album slowly builds up until the center track Century Eyes (the only real rock track) and then slowly comes down again, offering a real 40-minute journey. The whole album feels like a journey into the wilderness (could have been a perfect soundtrack for Into the Wild). If I had to comment on influences, I would say that this record moves away from Buckley and more into Oldham territory, with more folk, acoustic and definitely darker compositions. For me, this is the best work by Shearwater so far and is going in my shortlist for album of the year (although we have a long way to go). Enjoy over and over again..
PS. I was ready to review this yesterday but finally decided to leave it for today. As it turns out, both Pitchfork and Three Imaginary Girls posted their reviews yesterday afternoon. Thank god Zeugolator beat them by more than a week (also check out Elafini’s slideshow with Shearwater’s music as the soundtrack)
Rooks
Leviathan Bound
Century Eyes
While Palo Santo was a great album with influences from the likes of Jeff Buckley, in Rook Meiburg is shifting away into more mellow tunes. From the start of the album you’ll notice that this is much more personal for Meiburg than anything he’s done in the past. The production has stripped away much of the noise and guitars and uses a wide variety of instruments that provide a more natural and atmospheric feeling. The album slowly builds up until the center track Century Eyes (the only real rock track) and then slowly comes down again, offering a real 40-minute journey. The whole album feels like a journey into the wilderness (could have been a perfect soundtrack for Into the Wild). If I had to comment on influences, I would say that this record moves away from Buckley and more into Oldham territory, with more folk, acoustic and definitely darker compositions. For me, this is the best work by Shearwater so far and is going in my shortlist for album of the year (although we have a long way to go). Enjoy over and over again..
PS. I was ready to review this yesterday but finally decided to leave it for today. As it turns out, both Pitchfork and Three Imaginary Girls posted their reviews yesterday afternoon. Thank god Zeugolator beat them by more than a week (also check out Elafini’s slideshow with Shearwater’s music as the soundtrack)
Rooks
Leviathan Bound
Century Eyes
Όπως λέει κι ο φίλος zeugolator, θα σε επισκεπτόμαστε συχνά μιας και τα γούστα συμπίπτουν..οπότε μάλλον θα πηγαινοέρχονται τα συγκροτήματα ;)
(δες κι αυτό http://elafinismusic.blogspot.com/)