Okkervil River's aptly titled
Sleep and Wake-Up Songs is a five-song primer for the forthcoming full-length
Black Sheep Boy. Led by the pained tenor of
Shearwater frontman
Will Sheff, the Lone Star State sextet mines the same vein of
Americana as
the Scud Mountain Boys and
Will Oldham, focusing on the many guises of heartache with sharp lyrical imagery and
chamber pop nuances.
Sheff's protagonists are in a perpetual state of yearning. On the lonesome opener,
"A Favor," his love interest bemoans, "I would be anything that you wanted me to be/But how could I change my body," between bouts of alcohol-induced vomiting. Dark for sure, but the warm horns, weepy lap steel, and affective backing vocals from
Nicole Evans pull much of the material out of the razor-lined bathtub. There's a general looseness to
Sleep and Wake-Up Songs that goes hand in hand with the EP format -- laid-back, key-ambivalent vocals and such -- but
Sheff's sharp references to everything from
Star Wars sheets to slicing your flesh up with a pinecone, as well as the atmospheric arrangements, keep this slice of the bigger pie sweet and sinful. ~ James Christopher Monger