Okkervil River has been creeping up on me the past year and a half. They seem to be a relatively unknown band at least in the Pittsburgh music scene. They make some of the most creative and melodic music I have ever heard from a band. The thing about their albums is they all seem to tell some form of a story. The last album The Stage Names about a shitty movie and this new album the Stand Ins is all about being in a beat and broken rock band. It seems as though it's a shit idea maybe but the way Will Scheff writes his lyrics it comes out to be quite a great work. There are parts between each song called "Stand Ins' of just simple melodies which really add to the album and seem to break it up into different parts and make it much more story telling.
The songs range from great and happy to deep and depressing. Some like "Pop Lies" are just great to hear and Scheff's singing really nails it. The song "Blue Tulip" really seems to be one of the songs that really makes this album what it is a slow and immersive song thats hard not to listen to again and again. "On Tour With Zykos" gives the example of the hardship in a trying to make it rock band with conflict and pain. Scheff in my opinion is becoming one of the greatest rock musicians of our time and I don't believe it will be long until this band has a quite a large following. This album really proves that Okkervil is able to put out solid albums on a consistent basis and have them be different but just similar enough to the last to keep appealing to their fans. Welcome to one of the great bands of this "Indie Generation" they should be around for awhile because it seems like Scheff's creativity isnt going anywhere.
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