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.

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Jonathan Meiburg created Shearwater more than 25 years ago, together with Will Sheff. They were both in Okkervil River at the time.

Jonathan is a prolific writer. Not only does he write Shearwater songs, but he also writes books; his second book, The Secret Land: The Once and Future Life of Antarctica, is being written. Jonathan's just back to the USA after three months in Antarctica and southern Chile.

This is the first single from the coming Shearwater album. The album is named The New World. Jonathan's piano and voice works wonderfully at the start. He's really honed and mastered both his voice and expression over many years and mainly by caring for what he does, caring for what he wants to deliver.

It takes some skill to write a song like this. It's nearly a waltz, a carefully produced and mixed track that goes deeper by every minute. The piano repetition, the drum snare, the bass guitar, the guitar-warbles; Shearwater is a fun, funny, and tight machine.

There's a fun fact about the song: the title is a nod to The Monkees' 'Daydream Believer'. The song was written by John Stewart who was the uncle of Jamie Stewart. Jamie is in one of my fave bands, Xiu Xiu. Jamie plays the gong on 'Daydream Unbeliever'.

Full circle.

This is a very strong song. The album is released on 2026-07-31.

#music #MusicTips #Shearwater #XiuXiu