MOG

rating 7.5

summary More Xiu Xiu than shouting, Shearwater stretch benefit of the doubt thin - and ultimately prove they deserve it.

Sometime in the last decade the world changed.

I'm not talking about global warming or political apathy or youtube or three-legged swampfrogs giving birth to glow in the dark babies - I'm talkin: when did side-project bands become the norm and not a thin skinned excuse for overinflated self indulgence, stickin' it to your bandmates, and general ass-hattery? I mean, I thought music was dead, I thought the concept of albums and experimentation and inspiration and isolation were all to be cast by the wayside for the over arching goal of getting a song on an ipod commercial, or at the very least something practical, like a Toyota or a woman's razor. I mean, how can I expect to sip a latte along with the latest song by Deerhead when Deerhead is really Crystal Face which is an offshoot of Black Wolf which spent the first half of their career as Fck: Just Fck. I can't. That's how.

So basically, if you love music, and don't just buy products to its soothing pulses, you gotta sprint to keep up because brother, you've just been left behind. Thankfully we've got Shearwater to sooth the jittery aftershocks of trying to find out what Spencer Krug is up to these days. Side project of Okkervil river (with both main Okkervil Riverians Will Shef and Jonathan Meiburg essentially switching off vocal duties) Shearwater turns its nose to the yelps and the snarls and the raw improptu rolicking of records like Black Sheep Boy or The Stage Names and heads deep into the library where it can think and blow dust off books and ponder philosophy and quietly imagine Ye Olden Times with all it's toil and wintery barrows and burlap shoes. And while making a "deep" album is Side-Project 101, Okkervil River had a knack for pinching a nerve in at least one song a record - giving you a jab out of nowhere with suprising force and calculated precision - so what if they could spread it out....a deep tissue massage that washes over you pretty uneventfully until 3 days later you're in the corner, fetal positioned and sobbing.

Maybe they deserve to make an album like this....or at least deserve the benefit of the doubt

No doubt, Rook will surprise you no matter how many descriptors are thrown your way...Think renessance festival meets debate team meets Hieronymus Bosch painting only in shades of grey. It's hard not to toss around plebian non-thoughts like "boring" or "artsy" but Shearwater practically defy you not to. "Listen to our record more than once" it taunts you...almost forgetting to simply get you to listen to it all the way through once in the first place. Perhaps that's the reasoning for sticking "Century Eyes" smack in the middle...the only Okkervilian type track with a pulse and a plodding bassline and, oddly enough, the only one that feels out of place, even if at first it seems like, finally, something worth putting on repeat. So put the record down. It's ok. You didn't like it. That's alright. Go listen to "Black", you've earned it. Now...do you try again?

link to Century Eyes: http://mog.com/sageturk/blog_post/166215

I hope you do. A) I did and I don't want to be the only one, and B) By Jove it's actually more complicated, layered, structured, complex AND listenable than most Okkervil River tracks. There I said it. Take any of the thoughts or themes behind any Okkervil track, write a thesis about it, and what you'd get is a long-form essay full of theremin and harps and glockenspiel. What you'd get is Shearwater. Sure it helps to wait for a rainy day, or a long car ride, but Shearwater is the thinking man's shout-band...and if you've ever thought you should like art-folk more than you do, this is a pretty damn good place to start.

Shearwater: The Motion Picture

For fans of Midlake, or Xiu Xiu, or Joanna Newsom, or the Fleet Foxes, or Vetiver etc: Shearwater push through a concoction that should be overcooked and come out the better band - side-project status be damned. (and if this review seems like a slowmotion backhanded compliment, it ain't - it deserves the score it got)