Review: Shearwater – The Golden Archipelago (2010)
Bolstered by exotic and adventurous arrangements and a fresh theme, the band blasts out from the lead track “Meridian” into their lead single “Black Eyes.” As the piano punches its opening notes out, skipping beats as it reprises, Jonathan Meiburg’s unmistakable pipes fire out like a cannon over the water. This band isn’t even in the same state as Okkervil River anymore, let alone the same neighborhood.
The title track is ostensibly the culmination of seven tracks of slow burn – a kind of epic, late-breaking centerpiece meant to set off the rest of the album at a fever pitch. What it really is, in fact, depends entirely on just how captured the audience has been up to that point, and as the album is mainly buttressed by acoustic guitar and string arrangements, it’s safely in grower territory. After spending a the better part of a half hour listening to softly cooing strings gently complimenting the slender reed of Jonathan Meiburg’s tenor, the accumulated tension is a little lacking. Meiburg’s lyrics, however, remain wholly enriched and safely above par: “Oh lights on the floor / let the audience rise / let them file through the halls still assured in their lives / until the sky shudders open / impossibly wide.”
Shearwater’s “Landscape At Speed,” from The Golden Archipelago.
Sadly, the lofty ambitions still leave thunderous gems like Palo Santo‘s “Hail, Mary” and Rook‘s “Century Eyes” unrivaled, as there’s nothing here that’s quite so electrifying. Neither, for all the unorthodox instrumentation, is there anything as atmospheric as the waterphone wail of “South Col,” or for that matter, a track so uniformly excellent and satisfying as “Leviathan, Bound,” or “The Snow Leopard.”
By contrast, “An Insular Life,” with its salsa-basted drums and hazy cloud of guitar strums, is among the stronger tracks, but the real knockout row is “Landscape At Speed,” “Hidden Lake,” and “Corridors.” They’re Archipelago‘s three indisputably engaging numbers, two of which highlight Thor Harris’ noticeably emboldened drumming, which affords the tracks in question a healthy dose of grit. Overall, however, after 2008′s wholly triumphant Rook, a complimentary album of rival quality might have been too much to ask or expect. All preceding records in mind, this latest release appears less like an unforgivable blight and more like a simple disappointment. Meiburg’s latent obsession with expansive theatrics is in no short supply on Archipelago, but in more places than one would hope, the melodies fail to muster what the poetry promises.
