Okkervil River - Overboard and Down (EP)

Okkervil River, from Austin Texas have released a tour EP titled - ‘Overboard and Down”, exclusive to Australia/New Zealand to celebrate their recent tour. Lead singer and songwriter Will Sheff explains the source of the tracks, “We got together in the house and in a few days recorded 22 new songs. These weren’t intended for release; they were just for fun. Some of them were demos for possible future use, some of them were brand new songs I’d just written as exercises, some of them were covers, some were genre experiments. We just wanted to do a lot of recording with the express desire not to release the stuff, to rediscover the idea of recording for fun”.

While not intended for release Their Australian label – Low Transit Industries suggested a tour EP and Okkervil River saw a two fold opportunity to give back to Australian fans (as the only full length release available here is their last - ‘Black Sheep Boy’ and ‘Appendix’) and to make use of these home recordings. Jeff Hoskins and German engineer Ingo Krauss recorded most of the songs and all were produced by Okkervil River. Will Sheff yet again designed the artwork for the cover. The lyrics to all songs are included but their format is curious. Instead of the usual poetic visual arrangement the words are a stream of consciousness – a dense mass of word, which reiterates the way Sheff uses word as rhythm within the songs.

The opening Track ‘The President's Dead’ is classic Okkervil River. Verbose, educated and urbane while still remaining vernacular and accessible– it amazes me that a person can say so many words. I’m perhaps a little terse so verbal displays impress me! The song starts acoustically and builds to a crescendo only at the end of the song making it both sneaky and strangely satisfying – a great beginning to an EP/album. After reading the words I’m pleased by the content but I’m not going to spoil it for you – you have to hear it for yourself.

The second song ‘The Room I'm Hiding In’ reminded me of Uncle Tupelo. I’m a sucker for pedal steel: more contemporary bands should utilise that dreamy sound. It immediately creates space and a very particular mood that’s at once nostalgic and melancholic without feeling heavy and sad. One the best things about these guys is that they have a real knack for instrumentation. Scott Brackett and Brian Cassidy both play a broad range of instruments and use that talent sparingly. Each decision about what to play and when is thoughtful and adds to the meaning and emotional depth of the songs: both rare and intelligent. Again I’m impressed that anyone can write a dirge with frankly challenging content that sounds like music to bop your head to. The third song is a fun cover of the Big Star song ‘O, Dana’ which I found enjoyable but not terribly interesting.

The fourth song,’ Love To A Monster’ I remember from the show as ‘the one everyone sang along to’. I can’t say I’m a fan of songs about the break up of relationships, I guess it’s been done to death as subject in music and it’s pretty difficult to say anything new about it. It’s a good song and the folks obviously empathise with it so I’ll leave it at that. The final song a live version of ‘Westfall’ is from their first album. It’s an interesting song and asks good questions and again I say listen for yourself: I was pleasantly surprised by it’s intelligence.

This EP is indeed a true representation of Okkervil River live. Having seen them in September at the East Brunswick I am impressed by how much like their show the recording is. True to Will Sheff’s manifesto to have fun the entire disc is a pleasure to listen to. It has a feeling of joy in making and a spontaneity that is infectious. I enjoyed this ‘Overboard and Down’ more than any other recordings I have heard of theirs.

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