Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See

Today's Music of the Day is Okkervil River's Don't Fall in Love With Everyone You See. Special thanks to eMusic for providing me with this album. It's actually Okkervil River's first album, so I am working backwards on this one somewhat.

This album has all the hallmarks of the Okkervil River sound: elements of folk and a hint of Southern flavor, not enough twang to play a square dance but not really enough guitar solos to open for Van Halen (or whatever band sells out arenas now). There's a little bit of banjo, too, but it serves as more of an alternative to the vocals; DFiLWEYS doesn't have the horns and keys that would fit into the subsequent works. The songs are very good though there doesn't seem to be a consistent sound yet, as compared to later OR albums. Perhaps it's just the arrangement of the songs on the album, or maybe just relative inexperience. Emotions run high here, to say the least; Will Sheff, the singer, is a capable screamer, but has enough gears to his voice to make the screaming poignant, or at least not tired. Sometimes I wish this album had more energy, or at least fewer ballads, but it's not bad by any means, just less energetic than I'd like.

While I wouldn't consider this a stronger record than Black Sheep Boy or The Stage Names, it's still a fine album. There are some really good tracks here - "Red" and "Kansas City" come to mind. Some of the song titles are just as good as the songs themselves: "Dead Dog Song" and "Listening to Otis Redding at Home For Christmas" are fantastic. Clearly, though, the high point of the album is "Westfall", a simple enough track that goes on for roughly five epic minutes. It rocks harder than the rest of the album and has a strong build to it; without giving anything away, I'd have to say the lyrics give the song its power, though.

Overall I would recommend this album to most anyone; it's a fine starting point to a pretty decent band.

In Other News:
Finally almost caught up on sleep. At least until tomorrow, I'm sure.

Pandora just played Neutral Milk Hotel's "King of Carrot Flowers" for me. I love love love that song.