Album Review: Okkervil River - In The Rainbow Rain

For most of their 20-year existence, Texas-bred indie-folkers Okkervil River have lived in the earthier, organic end of the musical spectrum, the bleak and melancholic song quests of frontman Will Sheff housed in predominantly traditional instrumentation.

After a tumultuous split with his band a few years back (chronicled on 2016's bleak eighth album Away), Sheff has formed a completely new line-up of the band and - purportedly assisted by attending Quaker meetings, therapy and microdosing on hallucinogens - adopted a new more content worldview and persona. The result is akin to a completely different band and listening experience, albeit one still containing Sheff's distinctive voice and erudite approach to his craft.

Okkervil delved into synths on 2013's The Silver Gymnasium (a concept piece set in Sheff's mid-'80s childhood), but here that excursion has blossomed into full yacht-rock territory, his new muse of lightness reflected in commercial production, big synths and walls of FM-sounding backing vocals. Even autobiographical opener Famous Tracheotomies has a weird tropicana beat, while driving epic The Dream & The Light devolves into squalls of sax (a constant motif). Strong moments such as Pulled Up The Ribbon and the gentle swagger of Don't Move Back To LA prove that Sheff's adroit writing skills haven't left him, but when even meandering world-weary closer Human Being Song bursts into a happy starburst finale you know the scabrous delving into shadows of yore is a thing of the past, for better or for worse.