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Album Details

• Artist: Okkervil River
• Album: Sleep and Wake-Up Songs EP
• Label: Jagjaguwar
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2005-05-12

This band from Austin TX is gaining a lot of press lately and it's not because their music has gotten much better lately. No, it seems as though more attention is being paid to the rootsier side of indie rock. With bands like The Decemberists and Iron & Wine hitting the Billboard charts you can tell there is a shift in the tectonic plate of indie music. Okkervil River is poised to jump to the top with this EP and a full-length out within months of each other. Sleep and Wake-up Songs is a great title for this collection of five songs with Will Sheff (also of Shearwater) leading the way. Sheff has that longing voice that just seems so sincere. Sleep and Wake-up Songs opens with "A Favor", a track that evokes emotional pain with its dark overtone. Sheff and crew do take a few tips from Iron and Wine man, Sam Beam but do so without coming off as imitators. I do have to give Okkervil River credit for one of the coolest songs, "No Hidden Track", talking about just that. "What if there's no hidden track". My favorite track is "You're Untied Again". It is the most upbeat track on the set without getting too rambunctious. This is a great lead-up to their full-length album and works just as nice as a companion piece to it.

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