(Jagjaguwar/Spunk)

Bittersweet conceptual opus from melancholic Texans

Like much of Okkervil River’s work, new album The Stand Ins is a somewhat thematic work – 2005’s Black Sheep Boy revolved around a character inspired by the Tim Hardin song of the same name, while new album The Stand Ins is the second half of an originally-intended double opus, following on from last year’s The Stage Names. The new album has more meditations on the fading identities and crushed hopes behind the façade of show business (from the perspective of both practitioners and dreamers). Singer/songwriter Will Sheff is at his most wonderfully bleak in closing track Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed On The Roof Of The Chelsea Hotel 1979, an elegiac portrait of tragic glam rocker Jobriath. Sheff’s narratives make The Stand Ins resemble a collection of short stories (tellingly, the sleeve prints the lyrics in a prose-like font and layout). And downbeat tales they are too…Singer Songwriter portrays a figure surrounded by great taste and art, but otherwise empty (“You’ve got taste, what a waste that that’s all you have”). Pop Lie illustrates a dishonest man who writes an insincere love song to his paramour, while the narrator of On Tour With Zykos feels guilt at smoking bowls and watching a telemovie instead of writing great poetry. For all the melancholic and bitter stories on offer, The Stand Ins is not as mournful a listen as you may suspect. Sheff’s soaring, occasionally Morrissey-reminiscent vocals come with a healthy amount of melodic appeal, while the aforementioned Pop Lie is buoyed by an ‘80s power pop approach, Lost Coastlines boasts an irresistible Motown bounce and Starry Stairs is elevated by a rousing horn arrangement. The Stand Ins is the right kind of sad music – melancholic without being mopey.

****

MATT THROWER 

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