Shearwater - Rook
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Free Music Notes for Rook
Free Music Review: Eerily beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
So haunting....and so unique. Check out their website to hear a couple tracks in their entirety, and then you will want to get this CD. I just bought my husband 6 new CDs (after hours and hours of research) and this is his favorite! This is the best chilling music! It is just like a dark fairytale. You will be taken away to another world. His falsetto is out of this world. I would describe their sound as Jeff Buckley, Coldplay, and Radiohead. But, they are totally their own sound!Free Music Review: A Step Down
Hit: 3 Stars
I really thought the band had found its identity with their last record, Palo Santo, and I was looking forward to an even more solid realization on the next release. But it sounds as though they have lost their way slightly. Too much of Rook sounds like an uninspired, formless, experimental half-effort, as though the band was faltering about where to go after Palo Santo. Too often, Jonathan Meiburg's vocals seem to fall back into old patterns from Palo Santo (compare that drop to the minor key at the end of the verse on "Rooks" with the exact same on Palo Santo's "Red Sea, Black Sea" as well as the similar tinge of it on Rook's "Leviathan Bound," and you get the idea.) "On the Death of the Waters" sounds like it could be an amorphous, workshop version of Palo Santo's "Hail, Mary." (Of course, the bonus track "North Col" follows roughly the same template as "Hail, Mary," only faster and more compact. But the song creates such an entirely different atmosphere-not to mention it is just a very beautiful song in itself. So, sometimes building off of past songs is a good thing.)
And, in my opinion, Meiburg relies a little too much on his falsetto voice; at times it comes dangerously close to being gimmicky, and is a dissonant distraction on some parts of some compositions. While it is lovely-to-breathtaking (especially live) and perfect for most moments, it can be tiring on the ear at times on this and past albums (though I've noticed some more welcome variation on Rook.) Meiburg's lower registers are just as powerful, beautiful, and moving, and would serve the songs better at some points.
This album has its own very gorgeous moments: "Home Life" and "The Snow Leopard," with their expansive, solid orchestration and vocals, are the gems of the bunch, and hopefully a foreshadowing of the direction for the next release. What is frustrating is that more than a few of the songs have an equal share of beautiful and provocative moments with some that fall flat. "Century Eyes," for example, drones monotonously along until the chorus, and then my ears perk up.
To me it is as though Shearwater is trying to go forward, and has balked at the edge of entering the next territory, so they are just kind of hanging around in the old one. Which would be fine, if that territory still yielded what it did in the past. They have managed a few steps on "Rook." But as for me, I'll be sticking to my copy of Palo Santo and waiting to see if Shearwater takes off on their next release.
Free Music Review: Hauntingly beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
Shearwaters are said to be itinerant birds, sometimes covering distances in excess of 14,000 km. They glide blithesomely over the ocean, keeping close to the water, flitting their wings in a unique shearing motion to cut across wave fronts. The namesake of the bird, this band accomplish the staggering feat of encapsulating in this one disc the weariness and the languor of the shearwater. Every track adheres to a fairly predictable formula, but never to the point of linearity--it begins at a calm, leisurely tempo, mezzo piano, with wistful, delirious vocals and an almost calm-before-the-storm aura to it. Lead vocalist Jonathan Meiburg, a former member of the critically acclaimed Okkervil River, alternates between a quasi-falsetto and a subtle vibrato, his haunting, visceral baritone channeling Radiohead's absurdly talented Thom Yorke, consummate indie rocker Matt Berninger, of The National fame, and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe--all at once.
As if that alone were not impressive enough, the instrumentals are not just solid, which is usually enough to get the chattering class--critics, that is--chattering; sometimes--in fact, most times--they outshine or are right on par with Meiburg's poignant vocals. Case in point: Rooks, track two. The song opens to some familiar sounds--those of drums--and some not-so-familiar ones--those of dulcimer strings pulsating against the sounding board, of a mallet gently striking the glockenspiel, drawing from it the slightest, most dramatic sound--all of which, as soon as Meiberg begins, harmonizes his voice perfectly... and then, midway through the song, it segues into this almost jazzlike woodwind solo as Meiberg's voice shifts to a rousing falsetto. It all figures up to an end product that, to invoke that tiresome phrase, is far greater than the sum of its parts. Indeed, as a previous reviewer remarked, "There's a feeling of alchemy to it."
Before this effort, even with their stunning fourth album Palo Santo, Shearwater were, with no intent to disparage, just an above-average crew of indie rockers. But with Rook, Shearwater have transcended indie rock and created music that moves and inspires, using familiar instruments and formulae to create something entirely new. Only the best bands can do this. And this, I think, is the album we will look back on a decade from now and say, "That's were it started!" It is the best album I've listened to so far this year and is almost guaranteed to make my top ten for 2008. Get this now. You won't regret it.
Free Music Review: Another Stunner From Shearwater
Hit: 5 Stars
The folks in Shearwater continue to play by their own rules, with songs that inhabit evocative, complex arrangements--painfully beautiful, haunting even. Jonathan Meiburg's words have the same sense of deepening mystery that the band crafts so elegantly into their music, and his singing is stunning, swelling from a gentle falsetto into a resonant shout in a flash.
Although the lineup includes familiar instruments like the hammer dulcimer and the banjo, this band breaks beyond the confines of "roots music"--here, old sounds create something entirely new, using traditional music in novel and unexpected ways. There's a feeling of alchemy to it. The music grows and changes as you listen, like a shifting image, a kaleidscope. It strongly recalls Talk Talk and Mark Hollis, as well as Thomas Newman's film scores.
I had the opportunity to see Shearwater perform ROOK live in its entirety last month, and there was awe in the audience at all the talent up there--the members of this band are brilliant instrumentalists, and Meiburg is a truly riveting performer. I was thrilled to find that same energy captured so effectively on this CD. It's a treasure.
This is hands-down one of the albums of 2008. There's simply nothing else out there like it. If you have not explored Shearwater yet, get started. You'll be richly rewarded.