On 10 July, Will Sheff—who fronts Okkervil River—releases his second solo album, Extra Mile.

'Funny Feeling' is the first single. This is a dreamy, flowy track. An amalgam of Will's project named Lovestreams...highlighting lovely song. The percussion and synths bring a kind of 1970s Donny Hathaway feeling to the track, that turns different four minutes in. Will got his groove in! This track carries a bunch of components, all nice.

I've not seen Will in years. I know his and Beth's companion, Larry, recently died. That is harrowing. I remember when my wife's and my little love, Blixa, died. I suddenly remember Blixa Bargeld—yes he's the source of our Blixa's name—writing 'How Did I Die?', a song that is part of the Einstürzende Neubauten project and album LAMENT is infused with World War I. Does anything ever end? Does war ever end?

Lyrics from 'How Did I Die?'

Now there is only that sinister brown belt, a strip of murdered Nature. It seems to belong to another world. Every sign of humanity has been swept away. The woods and roads have vanished like chalk wiped from a board; of the villages nothing remains but gray smears where stone walls have tumbled together. A confused mass of troubled earth. Columns of muddy smoke spurt up continually as high explosives tear deeper into this ulcered area.

How did I die? I fell from the sky or didn’t I?

I filled my mouth with water so the bullet could secede

How did I die? How did I die? Did I die by my own hand? Or didn’t I? How did I die? Or didn’t I die at all?

How did we die? Or didn’t we? Didn’t we die at all? We didn’t die We didn’t die We are back with a different song

We didn’t die We didn’t die We’re just singing a different song We are back with a change of weather Ein anderer Wind, ein neues Lied

#music #WillSheff #EinstürzendeNeubauten