A year ago the album Stage Names by Austin, Texas-based indie-folk rockers Okkervil River was praised as one of the best albums of 2007 by Pitchfork, Amazon, Harp Magazine, eMusic, and numerous other music publications. Leading up to the release of band’s second endeavor The Stand Ins, the album was being billed as the sequel to Stage Names. Due to this distinction it is only fair to compare Okkervil River’s newest effort to their previous one.
The Stand Ins begins with a short instrumental intro track, and with this, the album begins to go wrong. The track is one of three such instrumental tracks on the album, none of which lasts even a minute, and all of which are rambling and unimpressive. While the tracks may have been meant to provide a tone and help transition the album from part to part, the result is the direct opposite. Because of these the The Stand Ins never really seems to get its footing, leading the album to feel like a collection of tunes without a sense of direction.
The first real song, “Lost Coastlines,” is probably the highlight of the entire work thanks mostly to lead singer Will Sheff’s duet with former Okkervil River keyboard player and current Shearwater front man Jonathan Meiburg. The two voices complement each other brilliantly; Sheff’s wavering tenor meshing with the calm bass-baritone of Meiburg.
The tracks that follow seem to wash over the listener without making much of an impression at all. None of the songs possess es riffs that draw the ear, and while Sheff’s trademark literary lyrical stylings still tell detailed stories, they just don’t seem new. For example, the tale of the person from a wealthy background whose family didn’t love him or her enough, leading to a terrible obsession with style told in “Singer Songwriter,” seems like a rehash of common themes in pop culture over the past decade. Even unique words used for rhymes cannot salvage the cliché.
By the time the seventh song comes along the listener is craving some sort of change. This track, “Pop Song,” offers that, with a far quicker feel than anything else The Stand Ins has to offer. It seems almost danceable in comparison. Yet even in this moment of relative excitement it is hard to attach oneself to the music. The exuberance, like all the other missteps of the album, seems far too calculated.
The Stand Ins is meant to be a concept album about the crummy aspects of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, but it lacks the spontaneity of rock. Even if the lyrical point is that the whole lifestyle it describes is a bleak lie, it doesn’t mean that the music itself has to feel dead.
The Stand Ins is simply missing so much that made Stage Names great. The new album seems like a bland canvas in comparison to the flush and colorfully woven tales of Okkervil River’s previous effort.
There are no songs that are as clever in their wordplay as “Plus Ones,” no songs have the emotionally wrenching fragility that “Savannah Smile” has, no songs that are as much fun as “You Can’t Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man.” Not a single song off “The Stand Ins” grabs the listener and commands their attention. The songs lack punch and any real sense of urgency. This is all the more astounding due to the way the listener was compelled to hang on to every syllable that Sheff uttered on Stage Names.
To put it bluntly, The Stand Ins hits a flat note. As far as sequels go it is much closer to Attack of the Clones than to The Empire Strikes Back. It is not so much that the album is horrendous by any means, it just fails to come close to living up to the expectations that Stage Names created. That’s the tough thing about hype – it often breeds disappointment.
Review Score: 3.7
*Originally published in Oct. 3, 2008 issue of The Gonzaga Bulletin*
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Hm, I just got the album, but I haven’t listened to it yet. Thanks for the warning.