It's a rare commodity to find a record that just seems to get it right. I mean really get it. The kind of disc that echoes your little world, your thoughts and your feelings, back to you in lines that you just wish you had the talent to write yourself. The kind of album that has you walking the long way home, or even skipping class to just sit and listen. With the amount of music thrown at us on a daily basis, it's easy to forget that these kinds of things actually exist, but they're the reason why any of us commit to finding new music. Needless to say, Okkervil River's latest has struck a nerve.
The Stage Names works not so much the level of a concept, but rather serves as a documentation of a band grasping at the roots of their own quasi-fame. The tracks, vaguely self reflective in their narration, gesture toward an anthemic quality for those newly encountering their own self image, or alternately those entering their quarterly life crisis. It's that quality which separates Okkervil River from many of their peers; while the theme of personal identity, or even band identity, is hardly innovative, few are able to comment on such themes without a full reliance on irony. Not only does The Stage Names achieve this, but it's able to take on the aspect of personal evaluation and have fun with it. The discs second track "Unless it's Kicks" offers up an example: "What gives this mess some grace unless it's fiction - unless it's licks, man, unless it's lies or it's love?"
In an interview just after the The Stage Names release, lead singer/guitarist/song writer Will Sheff described the album "a party, but a serious party." This idea is readily apparent throughout the record, a radical departure from its ballad-heavy-heartbreaking predecessor Black Sheep Boy. While equally as poetic, the disc adds a definite element of pop to the folk-esque indie rock; bringing an accessibility that the band somewhat lacked on previous work. Lyrically Sheff, who's ability for referential literary lines is unparalleled, is mainly commenting on the rude awakening of real life as a twenty something. Albeit that his own circumstances, with fans and a tour, are somewhat fantastical, they could just as easily be replaced with a job and friends, or school and peers. Make no mistake; this album might as well be about you.
