No, I Am Not High

One of my favorite bands is Okkervil River. Discovering them first through their 2007 album The Stage Names, I likedit enough to work my way through their back catalog. I really enjoyed the way frontman Will Sheff wrote, lyrically. A track like "The President's Dead," which was released as a single late in 2005, took both a widescreen and microscopic view to the reactions towards the assassination of a President - any President. It had a subtle depth to it that deftly related the issues that would surround an event of that magnitude without turning into melodrama. And it was a good song, too.

The album that touched me the most was their 2005 album Black Sheep Boy. Loosely, it was a concept album based on the "black sheep boy" character, inspired by a 1967 song of the same name by Tim Hardin. Lyrically, it may be the record I most relate to in my entire library. Sheff sang with furious emotion about hearing of a female friend's abuses with her father on "Black," pained a simple, yet nuanced look into unrequited love on "Song of Our So-Called Friend," and created interesting fairy-tale allegories on "A King and A Queen" and "A Stone."