Search - Okkervil River :: Black Sheep Boy Appendix

Mix-and-match-musicianship

Jason Scheirer | Riverside, CA, USA | 07/19/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Okkervil River has been one of my favorite bands of the decade thus far. However, this CD seems to be just the scrapings of a few miscellaneous songs, with a few fillers just to justify putting it to market. Two songs of note: "Another Radio Song," which has been floating around for a few years, and "No Key No Plan," the only new song that's really worth hearing on the piece. This isn't to say that this album is bad, it's still better than 75% of the music I've bought this year, but if this is indicative of the future direction of OR then I am disappointed. The new Shearwater album is amazing, though, and perhaps this OR release feels rushed and pieced together because the band has been concentrating on that instead."

Haunting, Beautiful, and Broken

Deven Seymour | 02/05/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Last year, I was given a copy of "Black Sheep Boy" by a friend. I loved it so much, that I purchased "The Stage Names". While the latter is a great album, it didn't have the haunted, broken sound of "Black Sheep Boy" that made me love it. So I thought I'd give the "Black Sheep Boy Appendix" a try. Yes! More of the same lovely, beautiful songs that seem somehow imcomplete, and yet fully realized at the same time. "A Garden" is sort of unnecessary, especially for 99 cents, but the whole Appendix was so worth the 7 bucks, that it doesn't matter. Okkervil River have a sound on these records that sells you on the idea that they could make the songs more radio friendly, they could write the songs to be better played, or better sung, but why do that, when it's obvious that what they're giving you now is their heart and soul up for scrutiny? That's what grabs me about this. It seems incomplete, rushed, broken, and yet somehow RIGHT."