Please, please, please shut the fuck up about Okkervil River’s “wordplay� and “multisyllabic lexicon.�

Similarly, can you please stop boring us with terms like “darkness,� “murder ballads,� and “stark imagery�? Because when you do, you really sell the band short. Which is a shame, because Okkervil River is fucking great.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
A music fan

Because what you are missing when you’re busy counting the number of syllables in “inscrutable� is all the good stuff.

Like the way singer Will Sheff can turn his voice from plaintive to potent in an instant. How he sometimes magically does both at once. And how Okkervil River can flat out rock when they’re not flat out bringing you down and then bringing you back up again. And how all of this is even better live.

But what about the words? Oh, the words are great. And lush, and soaring, and carefully crafted.

So much is made of Sheff’s narratives that sometimes it gets lost that his lyrics are, well, lyrical. And that is the real rarity here. When the American songwriter has so often been lauded for storytelling, it’s sometimes forgotten that lyrics are called lyrics for a reason: they are the words of music. And sure, that seems obvious. Lyrics are the words of music, you say, Tell me something I don’t know. And I will. Or I’ll ask. Why, then, are so many lyrics not lyrical at all? And why is it remarkable when they are? But it is, and Sheff’s lyrics are remarkable, in all the senses of that word. When did the music and the words become amiable roommates instead of live-in lovers?

And so we come to the purpose of this: Okkervil River is on tour in support of the recently released album The Stage Names. I won’t review the album here. There are a hundred places for you to find other internet music-writing hacks (don’t think I exclude myself from this group) counting syllables and tallying Sheff’s references to knives and throat slitting (It’s the metaphor, stupid!).

I will tell you that on Okkervil River’s last trip through town, I stood there on the floor at Neumos next to my best friend, while the band rocked and brought us down and brought us up and then rocked again. While Will Sheff screamed and pleaded and screamed. And I said to him, “You know how lots of times you’re at a show and you love the band and you love the music, but you think to yourself, ‘This is great, but I’m really about ready for it to be over.’?�

“Yeah,� he said.

“Well, I wish this would never end.�

“Yeah.�

(Okkervil River plays Neumos on Monday, September 10 with opener Damien Jurado. Shut the fuck up and listen.)

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