''Away'' is the eighth studio album by American rock band

Okkervil River Okkervil River is an American rock band led by singer-songwriter Will Sheff. Formed in Austin, Texas, in 1998, the band takes its name from a short story by Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya set on the river Okkervil in Saint Petersburg. They bega ...

, released on September 9, 2016. This album is the band's second release on ATO Records, following their previous studio album ''

The Silver Gymnasium ''The Silver Gymnasium'' is the seventh album by American indie rock band Okkervil River, released on September 3, 2013. It is the band's first release after signing to ATO Records, and their first album not released through Jagjaguwar. Overview ...

''. The album features a number of guest artists, including

Marissa Nadler Marissa Nadler (born April 5, 1981) is an American musician and fine artist. Active since 2000, she is currently signed to Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union, and released her ninth full-length studio album, ''The Path of the Clouds'', in Oc ...

, former band member and current

Shearwater Shearwaters are medium-sized long-winged seabirds in the petrel family Procellariidae The family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the diving petrels, the prions, and the shearwa ...

frontman

Jonathan Meiburg Jonathan Meiburg is an American musician and writer, best known as the lead singer and songwriter for Shearwater. Biography Meiburg was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 1, 1976. His father, Stan Meiburg, was an influential environmental pol ...

, and classical music ensemble

yMusic yMusic is an American sextet chamber ensemble from New York City. Consisting of a trumpet, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, and cello, the group was formed in Brooklyn by trumpeter CJ Camerieri and violinist Rob Moose in 2008. Career The ensem ...

. The album was recorded in New York and mixed by Jonathan Wilson. The recording of the album came in the wake of a number of professional and personal changes in frontman

Will Sheff Will Sheff (born July 7, 1976) is the frontman for the Austin, Texas-based indie band Okkervil River (1998–present). Originally from Meriden, New Hampshire, he is also a founding member and co-songwriter (along with former Okkervil bandmate Jo ...

's life, including changes in backing band members and the death of his grandfather. Sheff described the recording process and the resulting music as follows: "Eventually, I realized I was kind of writing a death story for a part of my life that had, buried inside of it, a path I could follow that might let me go somewhere new." A video for the album's opening track 'Okkervil River R.I.P' was released on July 6, 2016. The video was directed by Will Sheff and shot in upstate New York. The album artwork is taken from artist

Tom Uttech Tom Uttech (born 1942) is an American landscape painter and photographer. His inspiration has come from travels to northern Minnesota and the Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario. Biography Born in Merrill, Wisconsin, Uttech received a BA from Lay ...

's painting ''Nin Maminawendam''.

Reception

''Away'' received mostly positive reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the album has a score of 79 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

's David Sackllah called the album "a tremendous achievement that captures sentiments of loss, isolation, and searching for a belonging in a way that only a writer with a keen eye and empathetic nature as Sheff’s could fully articulate." John Everhart of Under the Radar also gave the album a positive review, writing "''Away'' is a comeback album for a band that never really went away, a gorgeous collection of ballads that is the Okkervil River of your dreams." In a mixed review,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

's Harriet Gibsone wrote "A fragmented, frustrated mindset has contributed to a sprawling, inconsistent album with brief flourishes of verdant beauty."

Track listing

Charts

References

{{Authority control Okkervil River albums 2016 albums ATO Records albums