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It must be a joyful moment of alchemy to be part of a band that finally finds itself. With 2006’s “Palo Santo”, Shearwater emerged both from the shadow of their Okkervil River connection and the relative mediocrity of their first three albums to find a sound and a plunging soundscape of melancholy that clicked into place like a miraculous fait accompli. Perhaps the success of both Okkervil’s Will Sheff and Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg has benefitted both men’s day jobs. Any diluted visions that once may have afflicted Shearwater are swept away by the intense focus of “Rook”. Meiburg’s stunning voice, born of and reflecting his childhood church choir days, switches from eerie and beautiful falsetto to soul-shuddering darkness, as do the songs, which are laden with dynamic mood changes, wonder and tragedy.
Opening single “Rooks” is an aching piece of mood music, driven along by a relentless rhythm section and a spine-tingling guitar melody, while album closer The Hunter’s Star offers up a lilting melody so loaded with pathos as to scud dark clouds momentarily across even the brightest of outlooks. But if you want to dip into Shearwater’s world then opening track “On The Death Of The Waters” delivers - in three devastating minutes - everything that the band offers the listener. The most delicate moments of piano and vocal, gradually and lightly laced with the gentlest harp and strings, build and ascend before suddenly and shockingly giving way to a terrifying musical tumult, the sound of crashing waves, hopeless peril and absolute insignificance. Quite magnificent.
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