I did not have the knowledge of Roky Erickson's history or music when I first heard about this collaboration. But I love Okkervil River. And Roky's tale of psychedelic-turned-schizophrenic made for a great enough redemption story for me to give this record a try.What should have occurred to me immediately is that the reason that I love Okkervil, was for Will's songwriting. And, of course, he is not writing anything on the album. So there is no wordy-word-word over-done-it stories that include a million a minute references to hipster impressives. And that's okay, just different. Roky is doing his country gospel thing. So lines are repeated 3 times per verse and choruses are heavy.
But it fits the style of Roky's songwriting, and it's great. The opening track for example, "Devotional Number One" is an archived recording. Scratchy, cut up and distorted in its age. It would have been better if Will had produced the album with that same sense of lack. Instead, the vocals are clean and way up in the mix; when Roky is not young nor does his voice have the dynamics that it once did.
Funny, it seems that the biggest problem I have with the album is not with Roky, but the guy I was most excited to see. I would expect that Will Sheff would produce his own band with the crisp of sunny California soft rock or even Philly soul. But Austin acoustic gospel deserves to sound like it wasn't produced at all. (2.5 of 5 stars)
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