Okkervil River : The Stage Names
 

Arguably this is Okkervil Rivers most rock oriented album, that's not a bad thing either. One thing I want to note on this is their frontman Will Sheff who's an incredible lyricist on this album I love is delivery so much on some of the tracks. He delivers these long narrative lines and some people have critisized this saying it shows that his lyrics don't transfer to music well but I beg to differ I think it makes them all the more powerful and there's a certain level of intelligence about it I can't quite put my finger on. Anyway this album is beautiful, from the upbeat A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene to the slow pornstar inspired Savannah Smiles all the way to the breathtaking closer the various suicide attempts of John Berryman.

Unless It's Kicks is truly an amazing song. Will Sheff brings out a lot on it and i appreciate that.

The point that the long, convoluted narrative lines don't seamlessly transfer to the music is precisely where the strength lies, in my opinion; because it serves to create this spooky, unnerving, disquieting dissonance that immediately draws you in.

This album was one of the most rewarding listens of 2007. I found it took some time to get going, but once all the pieces of the jigsaw fell into place there was no further room for being unconvinced.

Haven't listened for a few months but as I remember, my favourite tracks were Plus Ones and A Girl In Port.

Excellent.

Stage Names kept my attention and was surprisingly disparate from black sheep boy.

I actually listened to this whole album on Myspace, just because it was there.

It was painfully boring and I found the vocals to be very irritating. I can't for the life of me understand the appeal of this band.

You like genesis right?

Listen to the lyrics, friend.

John Allyn Smith Sails, and Girl in Port are my favorite.
It's such a good album

I did and

A. I think it sounds like bad emo poetry
B. Good lyrics don't make up for really dull music IMO.