Okkervil River
Sleep And Wake-Up Songs EP

Very interesting Texan folk-rock band recently back on the scene with the beautiful “Black Sheep Boy”. A year ago, they delighted us with this short EP of just 5 tracks titled “Sleep And Wake Up Songs.” In other words: songs for the two main phases of the day, waking up and sweetly falling asleep.

Listening to these 22 intense minutes, you realize how sweet it is to fall asleep with “Just Give Me Time,” a delicate ballad with soothing arpeggios and a poignant lyrics (“I shut my eyes, ripped the train from off the line, but a sudden gust of snow blew through a hole in my girl's clothes. Well, my girl knows she’s not all right, and I don’t mind. Just give me time, baby, give me time”). How fantastic it is to immerse yourself in the “Buckley-esque” atmosphere of the stunning “A Favor,” 6 acoustic minutes that give you chills. How delightful it is to listen to “You’re Untied Again,” even if it feels like listening to a Bright Eyes track (which is absolutely not a negative factor). How “And I Have Seen The World Of Dreams” gets inside you with the destroyed and trembling voice of Will Sheff, the songwriter of this American quartet. How “No Hidden Track” (which closes this extended play) is a Pop song with a capital P, worthy of the best Elliott Smith or the aforementioned Bright Eyes and Jeff Buckley.

Listening to this record means diving into folk melodies, stories, acoustic atmospheres, and the harmony that the four manage to emit in just over 20 minutes. A band to be promoted as much as possible. Who knows, one day we might hear a lot about them on the web and especially on TV or in the sales charts. Meanwhile, they are playing in my stereo, and that’s what matters...

“And I have seen the world of dreams, and, fresh-flown through the trees then dropped off at the curb alive, have seen the world awake, and I don’t know which I deserve.”