Rook

Much more than one man's solo recordings or an Okkervil River side project, Jonathan Meiburg's Shearwater follow last year's partially re-recorded and re-released Palo Santo with their first LP of new tunes for Matador.

Shearwater crafts a sound ideal for hours of drifting and immersion—Jonathan Meiburg's delicate specter of a voice, like the band as a whole, sounds ready to slip into some new shape at any moment. If Sun Kil Moon and The Black Angels can get away with 10-minute songs, so could Shearwater, and they'd probably make…

Originally a side-project outlet for 'quieter songs' than those suited to Okkervil River, Jonathan Meiburg and Will Sheff have produced a weighty and gloriously rich follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Palo Santo". And it's not really 'quiet'.

In 2007 Shearwater made the jump from Misra to Matador, culminating in a generously stocked reissue of 2006's excellent Palo Santo.

Despite its musical accomplishments, Rook is not a particularly easy album to listen to.

Shearwater's critically acclaimed 2006 release, Palo Santo, was a work of such startling beauty, garnering near-universal praise, that when the band signed...

Album Reviews: Shearwater - Rook

Shearwater - Rook review: The first thoroughly enjoyable indie rock album of the year includes one of the year's best songs in general in