Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Black Sheep Boy
2. For Real
3. In a Radio Song
4. Black
5. Get Big
6. King and a Queen
7. Stone
8. Latest Toughs
9. Song of Our So-Called Friend
10. So Come Back, I Am Waiting
11. Glow
12. For Real [Multimedia Track]

Disc 2:

1. Missing Children
2. No Key, No Plan
3. Garden
4. Black Sheep Boy, Pt. 4
5. Next Four Months
6. Another Radio Song
7. Forest
8. Last Love Song for Now
9. No Key, No Plan [Alternate Take][Multimedia Track]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12066 in Music
• Released on: 2007-03-06
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Enhanced
• Dimensions: .29 pounds

Album Description
This is the definitive double-disc set which brings together Okkervil River's ground-breaking Black Sheep Boy project in its entirety--including the original album, the 7-song Black Sheep Boy Appendix EP, the song "The Next Four Months" (originally released on the "For Real" CD single), the "For Real" video as well as a new video of a magical alternate slower take of "No Key, No Plan". Enjoy this panoramic perspective of a modern masterpiece and one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the new millennium. Black Sheep Boy is Okkervil River's most ambitious and cinematic record to date, a love story and adult fable carved in lacerating rock and roll, desolate late-night country weepers, and a few shining moments of sheer, shameless pop. Along the way, the compositions of Will Sheff evoke the mature songcraft of Leonard Cohen's New Skin for the Old Ceremony, the sophistication of Scott Walker's Scott 4, the shambling slow-motion bravado of Neil Young's On the Beach, and the raw nerves and trick effects of Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers. The Appendix is not just a companion piece to Black Sheep Boy; it's also a condensed, alternate vision of that record's imagery and themes, with the ultimate intent to exhaust and destroy both. This ambitious mini-album rounds up and reworks the band's favorite unfinished songs (tracked for the full-length) and then punctuates and bookends them in brand-new compositions.

Amazon.com
When Okkervil River released Black Sheep Boy Appendix in 2005, it seemed like the band just couldn't stop themselves. Folk icon Tim Hardin's tune had both opened and provided the name for the preceding full-length album, and the "Black Sheep Boy" was too compelling a concept to leave behind. Ouch, you sigh, a concept album: But here, the concept disappears, replaced by Will Sheff's fantastic narrative songwriting and a mix of electrics and acoustics--guitars, pump organs, mandolins, vibraphones, and more. Then there's this 2-CD Black Sheep Boy Definitive Edition, merging the original album with the Appendix EP. It's a spare-beauty-turned-turbulent thing. On "Another Radio Song," Sheff's an imagist, bellowing and pleading alongside a cresting string section: "There is no escaping it / The way an unborn baby's ear unfolds in your belly / There is no escaping the thing that is making its home in your radio." It all becomes a bursting emotional leap. And for the Definitive album, you find that classic rock gem: an unreleased track whose easy brilliance seems effortless. "The Next Four Months" is a pill-popping, husband-ditching classic, "We're driving down the interstate/ You're feeling great / You scratch your wrist / And we pretend your kids, your husband / All you left does not exist," the story goes. You can guess the ending. But it's the whole piece, words and music, that you have to hear to imagine. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

A Creature All Its Own
Okkervil River is one of those rare bands that came on the scene like a crippled child in a street race, tons of ambition and heart in a limping fragile frame. With each reappearance their stamina shines through however, as every album they release is an exponential improvement over the last. With Black Sheep Boy they have, not only come to full maturity as a band, but have grown into a powerful creature of immense musical talent aswell. They are without a doubt miles ahead of their competition. On par with bands such as The National, Arcade Fire, and The Decemberists, as far as talent and personal voice, if not also in style (Think: The child of The National and The Decemberists trapped inside of a very troubling dream).

The Album does not stick to a single genre, sometimes it's alt-county, sometimes it's straight up rock, but it's always musically inspired and rewarding to listen to. But the part that makes this an excellent Album, rather than a collection of songs, is the epic scope of the story it contains.

The songs collect the thoughts and experiences of a true struggle with evil. The physical turmoil of a rotten relationship, the very real vices and temptations of humanity, the sickly excitement and victories that evil enjoys, all of these things are brought together to form the black sheep boy, the devil inside us all. The story is extremely personal, and Okkervil River's great strength is the injection of emotion into every line, and every note of the songs. But even for an album completely covered with the struggle with evil, it never gets bogged down in the darkness, and is more often triumphant in it's victories over the enemy. I'm always overjoyed with the pitiful pleas of evil desires as the hero turns his back on the empty promises and lies and moves on to a better life.

Add to all of this, the fact that it now comes packaged with The Black Sheep Boy's Appendix, for almost no extra cost, and you have a definitive product indeed. The Appendix is an EP that was released several months after Black Sheep Boy. However, it is seriously one of the best mini-albums I've ever heard. From start to finish the songs segue like a masterpiece stage act. Floating from song to song, remembering themes and images from itself and Black Sheep Boy propper, it finalizes the story and musical arc of Black Sheep Boy. It contains several songs that are even more beautiful and grander than the songs on the album itself. Check out 'Another Radio Song' to find the best song Okkervil River has recorded to date, in my opinion.

This is a must have for any fan of adventurous albums with emotion, talent, and character. I have listened to it at least once a week for the past year and a half. Give it a try.

DrD
F***in awesome!
I crave this album. Been obsessed with Okkervil River for about a year now and feel more passionately about them now than I did when I started. Great poetry. Rockin, dance-worthy music. My mom and boyfriend are also in love with them.