“Lost Coastlines“
from the album The Stand Ins
2008
iTunes
The shore may appear familiar, but the waters run deep on “Lost Coastlines,“ the lead single from Okkervil River’s upcoming The Stand Ins. If the new record is the second part of a double album begun with last year’s great Black Sheep Boy follow-up The Stage Names, it’s possibly significant that this song appears in the same slot on The Stand Ins that “Unless It’s Kicks” occupied on its predecessor. On that song, Will Sheff’s intensely self-reflexive lyrics urged a “mid-level band” on to greater heights; “Lost Coastlines” is a darker, more metaphorical take on the same theme, exploring the uncharted regions of a mid-level band’s continuing journey, with another set of free-flowing lyrics.
Sheff trades vocals here with multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Meiburg, who recently left Okkervil River to focus on Shearwater, as the band stretches out its ragged folk-pop to include the ostinato basslines and bouncing rhythms of Northern soul. Interestingly, it’s Meiburg who sings, “Jonathan says we sail out on order of him / But we find that the maps he sent to us don’t mention lost coastlines,” possibly a reference to himself. For all the lyrics of self-doubt, the arrangement betrays a growing confidence, rough edges melting away beneath swaying strings as Sheff repeats the song’s final, fuck-it-let’s-just-rock “la la la.” One thing remains certain: You better look out for love.