Here's the thesis for my review: After listening to this album for, oh, five minutes, it was already better than the previous two we chose. I think that means I need to downgrade Oxford Collapse a half-step. Then again, the first real song of the album is Lost Coastlines which might be the best thing Okkervil River has ever done and considering how I consider Okkervil River to one of the premier indie bands of our time, that's saying something. Everything about the song is great...the melody, the bassline, the banjo, the Meiburg singing parts, everything. It really sets such a high bar that the rest of the album can't match. Too bad. I do think the rest of the album's pretty good, but I just can't stop listening to Lost Coastlines. I know, it's a completely unfair review. There are a couple of other tracks that I do really like namely Starry Stairs and the Ex-Girlfriend one. I'm just having ahard time listening to the rest of the album without a nagging voice in my head urging me to flip back to Lost Coastlines.
Intanglible for this album: Does it make me wanna be a rock star? The answer to that is a resounding, "Yes." From the moment I heard Lost Coastlines, I wanted to form a band and play a church talent show or something. Seriously.
Final Grade: I'm giving it an A-. I really should give it an I for incomplete because I haven't given the other songs their proper due. but from the couple of times I have heard the other songs, they are pretty good, so I think a prelim A- is fine, with an open reservation to the A area. That's right. It might become an A album for me. (I hope I'm not guilty of grade inflation. The more of these we do, the more likely I am to realize how I keep overrating albums.)
