Okkervil River
The Silver Gymnasium

Let's give a couple of space-musical coordinates: a Texan band little known in Italy but among the major representatives of the so-called independent pop-rock, here at their seventh studio album. As already done in the past by Arcade Fire with “The Suburbs” the album develops like a small grand diary full of melancholic images, where the singer Will Sheff's voice takes us by the hand along the paths of his personal childhood and growth memories. We will meet friends, quirky characters, loves, stories, and dreams of a micro-world typical of thousands of American small towns, ultimately not far from what could have happened to any of us. As always, the narrative ability of this group is accompanied by a tendency to do indie rock never banal, in this case without fear of approaching sometimes David Bowie-like atmospheres, at times even confronting ska (indie-ska?). The deliberately retro musical choice of certain tracks is clearly sought to accompany the memories of those like the singer who grew up in the eighties, when as kids we still waited by the radio for the song of the day to play, ready like ravenous wolves to pounce on the "rec" button of the stereo to always have it with us in the coming days. Those who don’t know them yet can approach them with this album, let’s say less "risky" and "hysterical" than others and more "calm" and "commercial"; those who have already had the fortune to discover them for some time, however, will feel at ease perhaps with a bit of a bitter taste in front of a lesser album.