Weekly Release Spotlight: Shearwater

Posted on 6/16/2008

Shearwater

Rook

[Matador]

Translating the crispness of a cool summer night and the eerie reflection of gray clouds upon shimmering lake water into music is apparently possible. And Jonathan Meiburg (formerly of Okkervil River) and his cavalcade of Shearwater contributors have not only successfully executed it on their latest full-length, but they have perfected it. Album of the Year accolades are already bouncing around the blogosphere and mainstream press alike, and similar to The National's Boxer last year, Rook has the potential to reel in the masses with a tender but brutal darkness. Usually when an indie-rock album garners crossover appeal, it's because of giant hooks or a cutesy pop sound, not the benevolent moroseness that encompasses the eulogy music on Rook.

Another guarantee that the Shearwater hype isn't some kind of freshman adoration is the fact that the band has been working toward this kind of esteemed recognition for over seven years now. Rook catapults itself into the band's discography as album number five in a long line of carefully constructed mood music, complexly orchestrated and understated as all get out - the precise combination of loveliness that basically screams, "no need to shine the spotlight on us...yet." Originally teaming up with the main force behind Okkervil River, Will Sheff, for 2001's The Dissolving Room, Shearwater often focused on restrained acoustic affairs not unlike the way their other band eased its way into dramatic and more eye-opening territory by the time last year's The Stage Names came around.

When Meiburg expanded 2006's Palo Santo as a newly released sprawling epic with re-written and re-recorded parts, anticipation for Rook deservedly grew exponentially. Now here it is, and every doomed piano chord and ghostly vocal sustain has been amped up emotionally without ever sounding overproduced or sensationalized. And it's not a one-trick pony of soft and pretty: "Century Eyes" triumphs at turning a distorted guitar sound into something heavenly and multi-faceted, "I Was a Cloud" gets nearly ambient while retaining an unbearable sense of dread, and "The Snow Leopard" maintains a middle ground of both smoldering instrumentation (wait for that subtle brass to squeal!) and Mieburg's volatile falsetto. Providing a murky setting with a refreshingly open sound, Shearwater seem poised to become a staple crossover act, and us indie kids couldn't get better representation.

Stream: Shearwater - Rooks

The song is no longer available for streaming or downloading. Sorry.

Shearwater will be playing the 7th Street Entry on Wednesday, June 25th.

Written by Chris Polley, Radio K volunteer and host of Now Like Photographs.