Product Description

Austin's Shearwater return with the follow-up to "Palo Santo". "Rook" meditates on man's intersection with the natural world; the world after human beings are gone. A dark fairy tale encased in a cycle of songs. Jonathan Meiburg's bold, soaring voice still anchors the songs, which broaden his pastoral prog-folk chaotic celestial mindfuckery into new realms. Beyond the continuing touchstones of late Talk Talk, Nico, and John Cale, there are now allusions to Van Morrison and hints of Joni Mitchell. All set in a newly lush sonic gorgeousness of harp, strings, and woodwinds atop the magnificent rhythm section.

Track Listing

1. On The Death Of The Waters
2. Rooks
3. Leviathan, Bound
4. Home Life
5. Lost Boys
6. Century Eyes
7. I Was A Cloud
8. South Col
9. The Snow Leopard
10. The Hunter's Star

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31587 in Music
• Released on: 2008-06-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.com
On their breakthrough release Rook, Shearwater provides each number with more dimensions than most bands demonstrate on entire albums. The Austin quartet's follow-up to 2006’s Nico-inspired Palo Santo springs to life with "On the Death of the Waters," which unfolds like a sleepy ballad, swells into an orchestral maelstrom, and contracts in a cluster of minor-key piano chords. Like the best opening tracks, it commands attention, but "The Snow Leopard," where they combine the grandeur of Sigur Rós with the flamenco-inflected heartbreak of Forever Changes-era Love, serves as the centerpiece of this ecologically-oriented song cycle. Singer/ornithologist/ex-Okkervil River keyboard player Jonathan Meiburg, who recalls folk troubadour Tim Buckley, and collaborators Kimberly Burke, Howard Draper, and Thor Harris work their magic through evocative imagery, modulated vocals, and fluid instrumentation. The opposite of ragged and spontaneous, the four-piece occupies the more rarefied realm of the theatrical and the cinematic, and it comes as little surprise to find that 2008 also marked their first foray into features (indie romance In Search of a Midnight Kiss plays out to Shearwater’s mournful melodies). Augmented by 14 guest musicians, Rook unfurls like a dream, a poem, and the soundtrack to a flickering old film about lost frontiers. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Another Stunner From Shearwater
The folks in Shearwater continue to play by their own rules, with songs that inhabit evocative, complex arrangements--painfully beautiful, haunting even. Jonathan Meiburg's words have the same sense of deepening mystery that the band crafts so elegantly into their music, and his singing is stunning, swelling from a gentle falsetto into a resonant shout in a flash.

Although the lineup includes familiar instruments like the hammer dulcimer and the banjo, this band breaks beyond the confines of "roots music"--here, old sounds create something entirely new, using traditional music in novel and unexpected ways. There's a feeling of alchemy to it. The music grows and changes as you listen, like a shifting image, a kaleidscope. It strongly recalls Talk Talk and Mark Hollis, as well as Thomas Newman's film scores.

I had the opportunity to see Shearwater perform ROOK live in its entirety last month, and there was awe in the audience at all the talent up there--the members of this band are brilliant instrumentalists, and Meiburg is a truly riveting performer. I was thrilled to find that same energy captured so effectively on this CD. It's a treasure.

This is hands-down one of the albums of 2008. There's simply nothing else out there like it. If you have not explored Shearwater yet, get started. You'll be richly rewarded.

is there an Eden?
I was traveling through Indochine - doing nothing - nothing much at all when I chanced across a music store and found this CD on their racks.
Being outta touch and outta place I was not expecting to find such a treasure - so recent and all - so far away from home.
So I forked out the necessary and took my foundling home - delighted.
Now I was WOW'd by Shearwater when I first discovered them some time back and over the years they have become a regular listen for me.
Each new disc being an evolutionary creation - a variation on a theme.
Nowt much wrong with that methinks.
Works of continuity and consistency - same same - but different.
Certainly no repetitive formula this.
Once home I hit the horizontal, plug in and relax - go where the music takes me.
Mesmerized and hypnotized by imagined magical soundscapes - the soundtrack to my natural world - the songs of my nature - the music of my life
All that I find calm and contemplative.
However conversely I often find myself taken to the edge of chaos and confusion, but there is pleasure to be found in the pain.
The calm before the storm followed by the sunshine after the rain.
Waves crashing to the rocks - before back-washing into the deep on the undertow.
Drowning/Drowned
Drowndead.
Rebirth/reborn.
Reincarnate
Sweet, soured vocals and honeyed, rasping playing compliment and contrast on this recording.
Now I am sure I will miss Will Sheff - but I am not for now on this outing.
Some will try to categorize this band (or is it a collective?); Folk? Americana? Indie? - but forget it.
Why bother - they just don't need it (sic) - and to pigeon-hole them does them no justice - they are simply unique to me and my ilk - and I hope they will be to you and yours too.
Now, I don't wanna spoil a good thing but, if references need to be made to help me help you understand where I think they're coming from, then I could do a lot worse than mention King Crimson, Robert Fripp, Talk Talk, Mark Hollis, Radiohead and Sugar Ros.
I hope I am not misleading you.
Whatever - this is a fine piece of contemporary music.
Does it take me closer to Eden?
Well, I like to think so.

falsetto beautiful but tiresome
I do enjoy Shearwater. The voice, the music, the way it fits with driving through wind-swept winter landscapes. However, this one felt a little indulgent to me.