Today dear Will Sheff releases his sophomore album, Extra Mile. It's a good leap from his first album, Nothing Special.
Will once co-founded Okkervil River and Shearwater, two bands that I love. He's now making thoughtful, visceral, and lovely music to which we hum and swing our hips.
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