Okkervil River’s 2013 album The Silver Gymnasium, will finally have a follow-up album coming in September 2016. The new album Away, will be released on September 9th through ATO Records.
Compared to The Silver Gymnasium, which has video game created to compliment the album, Away was recorded with a completely different lineup. According to a press release, the lineup comes from the “jazz and avant-garde world.” Marissa Nadler, Jonathan Melburg (former Okkervil member and current frontman for Shearwater), the classical ensemble yMusic, and more are also featured on the album.
Will Sheff, main Okkervil member, recorded Away at a Long Island studio. He used the same console, a Neve 8068, that was used to record Steely Dan’s Aja, and John Lennon’s Double Fantasy. The first song on the LP is “Okkervil River R.I.P”, which is a “somber acoustic guitar-led” song allows the listener to experience some of the jazz influence Sheff is going for with the stand-up bass that can be heard in the background.
Sheff stated the album was created because of the rough times he had been going through from 2013-2015. Between his grandfather/hero dying, band members leaving to pursue their own dreams, and living in a friend’s empty house because of home problems, Sheff had the opportunity to write new songs. “I set myself the challenge of trying to write enough to make a whole record…Eventually, I realized I was kind of writing a death story for a part of my life that had, buried inside of it, a path I could follow that might let me go somewhere new,” he said.
Away’s Track list:
01 Okkervil River R.I.P.
02 Call Yourself Renee
03 The Industry
04 Comes Indiana Through The Smoke
05 Judey On A Street
06 She Would Look For Me
07 Mary On A Wave
08 Frontman In Heaven
09 Days Spent Floating (In The Halfbetween)
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