Jagjaguwar

Few bands are more acclaimed than Austin, Texas’ Okkervil River. Rock critic clichés like “hyper-literate lyrics” and “atmospheric indie-rock” abound – but that never seemed to matter on the 2005 breakthrough Black Sheep Boy and its follow-ups The Stage Names and The Stand Ins as Okkervil scrawled out gothic folk rock tales with the breathless desperation of first sex. With I Am Very Far, though, the band presents 11 patently Okkervil River songs – dramatically-building bridges, echoing back-up vocals, clattering pianos – largely missing the ache that made earlier releases such personal affairs. Songs like the pounding haunt “The Valley” and rock rave-up “Rider” resonate immediately, and frontman Will Sheff’s odes to “the rock and roll dead” are still engrossing. But Okkervil is too comfortable being Okkervil – still sexy, but lacking danger.