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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I must confess, it took me a few weeks to get into this album. I slowly waded into it - and waded is the right word, because this album, for me anyway, has a very distinct sea-influence, like the songs rose up from a foggy coastline - it's just thick with atmosphere, this album. The vocalist has a bit of a whiney sound sometime, but after repeated listen I really feel comfortable with his voice - he is passionate, and I prefer passion to stale vocals that don't take any risks. Acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, and organs abound - very nice instrumentation - the quicker tempo tracks are very very good - I love the last song with its mandolin flourishes and sing along ending - I think this album deserves to be heard - any Wilco or Decemberists fan would probably dig this sound - check it out! Enjoy!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
To the dark melancholy of 'Don't Fall In Love...', Okkervil River's brand new offering 'Down The River of Golden Dreams' is a ray of sunshine. Well, dark sunshine. Sunshine behind a cloud... with rain. 'Down the River of Golden Dreams' is that sunshine between rain, then. With lovely wind noises.
Decidedly more up-beat, this album drops the predominantly mandolin and thrashed acoustic guitar of it's predecessor in favour of wurlitzer in a sleeker, more refined and mature sound- still irrevocably that 'Okkervil River' sound, with no small thanks to Sheff's bitter-sweet and immensely distinctive, soulful vocals.
It is a glorious anthology of short stories, each one memorable, meaningful and double-edged- that is, an occasionally rusty, serrated edge- so if manufactured pop is your haunt- you have been warned.
Approach this with an open mind and you will be rewarded, enlightened and uplifted, for 'tis a beautiful creation, but fragile; so tip-toe towards it, lest it shatters.
Decidedly more up-beat, this album drops the predominantly mandolin and thrashed acoustic guitar of it's predecessor in favour of wurlitzer in a sleeker, more refined and mature sound- still irrevocably that 'Okkervil River' sound, with no small thanks to Sheff's bitter-sweet and immensely distinctive, soulful vocals.
It is a glorious anthology of short stories, each one memorable, meaningful and double-edged- that is, an occasionally rusty, serrated edge- so if manufactured pop is your haunt- you have been warned.
Approach this with an open mind and you will be rewarded, enlightened and uplifted, for 'tis a beautiful creation, but fragile; so tip-toe towards it, lest it shatters.
15 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
We all know amazon reviews are the most biased opinions you can get anywhere - every cd is apparently the best one in the world. I'd say in recent years there have been a lot of 4.5 star cd's out there, excellent, worth listening to for months straight, but not quite deadly. This cd is absolutely deadly.. i'm not much for the nu folk scene, and wilco isnt my cup of tea.. but theres somethign undeniable here. Buy this album. If you have a soul, it will thank you.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I once read an interview with Okkervil's singer/songwriter Sheff in which he said he didn't want to be famous--well, there isn't going to be much he can do about that after this album. The band's sound is too strong to be ignored. As for Sheff himself, he sounds like the singer Jonathan Richmond could have been, but never quite developed into--and his lyrics read as beautiful on paper as they sing. This is a brilliant group that just keeps getting better and better. If they keep topping themselves with every album the way they've been doing, I think they are going to give me a heart attack.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By matttttt
Format:Audio CD
I've been listening to this album for a couple of years now and just recently it has been sitting on repeat over and over probably because of the mood I have been in.
This is one of the most honest and beautiful albums ever. Ever.
Each and every song has it's own beauty in it's own special way. It seems like even when I don't comepletly see what a song is getting it, I can still relate to the words in my own way.
There isn't any one single track I would claim to love more than any other because I really only listen to the whole cd at once. (though the album version of 'The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion' is kind of weak, I much prefer the one from Stars Too Small to Use but that hardly makes a difference).
If you're a fan of Neutral Milk Hotel, Murder by Death, or other such melancholy, instrument-laden, emotional, lo-fi, indie-folk bands, and you don't like this you should be beheaded, end of story
This is one of the most honest and beautiful albums ever. Ever.
Each and every song has it's own beauty in it's own special way. It seems like even when I don't comepletly see what a song is getting it, I can still relate to the words in my own way.
There isn't any one single track I would claim to love more than any other because I really only listen to the whole cd at once. (though the album version of 'The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion' is kind of weak, I much prefer the one from Stars Too Small to Use but that hardly makes a difference).
If you're a fan of Neutral Milk Hotel, Murder by Death, or other such melancholy, instrument-laden, emotional, lo-fi, indie-folk bands, and you don't like this you should be beheaded, end of story
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By G. Flores
Format:Audio CD
I don't remember how I was introduced to Okkervil River but I'm glad I found them. I guess they belong in the indie-folk/avant-folk/alt-country genre... whatever that means. All I know is the music is slow and smoothing. The voice and lyrics of Will Sheff is akin to the great Nick Cave. The clear single is "It Ends with a Fall," which I believe the budget music video is available on their website. A must-see.
The great thing about this album is the more you listen to it, the more the rest of the album become your favorite songs, meaning, there won't be just one or two standout tracks. The whole album will be one complete enjoyment.
The great thing about this album is the more you listen to it, the more the rest of the album become your favorite songs, meaning, there won't be just one or two standout tracks. The whole album will be one complete enjoyment.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
Okkervil River is simply amazing. Awesome lyrics. Like the previous reviewer said, The War Criminal Rises and Speaks is almost too good to be real. It is one of those songs that songwriters dream about writing.
When I first heard Okkervil River about a year ago, all I heard were the vocals, and how they werent perfect. Now I love the vocals. I am tired of these bands that spend weeks fixing their vocals so that everything is absolutely perfect. This music is raw and full of emotion. More so than any band I have ever heard.
5+ stars!!!!
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Eliza
Format:Audio CD
okkervil river listens like reading someone's diary: embarassinly personal, full of all the things you never wanted found out, tearing away your pervious conceptions until you are almost sick from too much truth. will sheff's voice catches you off-guard, sometimes almost like a male chan marshall in it's tentitive quavering and at other moments worthy of a tennessee williams play in it's intensity. my personal favorites are "the war criminal rises and speaks" and "the velocity of saul at the time of his conversion." i don't see the point in comparing these guys to anything. if you do, they're bound to come up short for something like pretentions to uniqueness. okkervil river can stand alone.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Edgy averageness
Alt-country or indie-folk act has been gaining hipster momentum throughout the past half-decade with a simple enough concoction of bruised Americana. Read more
Published on March 27, 2009 by IRate
5.0 out of 5 stars
The President's Dead +4 tracks
This little EP is really nice. It's the only way to get "The President's Dead" on CD. It's currently only available as a digital download or on LP. Read more
Published on January 27, 2008 by Alec Jay Therins
5.0 out of 5 stars
Down the River of Golden Songs!!!!
I don't even feel I can put into words how I feel about this CD. These songs I guarantee will touch you. If you are up for sadness and a touch of magic. Buy it. Just buy it.
Published on March 11, 2004
1.0 out of 5 stars
if you hype it they will buy
a little to much like there influences.not bad music but theres deffinetly better.for the other reviwer,song number five is not the song i would sit around dreaming i could... Read more
Published on February 20, 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars
a force to be reckoned with
Oh, Okkervil River: Please accept my congatulations, because this album is one of the closest things to musical perfection that's been made in my lifetime. Read more
Published on November 4, 2003 by Summer Burton
Listmania!
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