The Stage Names by Okkervil River starts with a well-paced number called “Our Life is Not a Movie.” Upon first hearing the desperate vocals matched with the strong and steady drums and the supportive guitar lines, it might strike you as their catchiest song to date. That is until you hear the second track, “Unless It’s Kicks.” Fortunately, these stakes of simple one-upmanship do not remain static throughout the album, which is rich with mood, pace and energy.
    Clearly blessed with talent for telling a story, be it set to music or not, singer and songwriter Will Sheff once again proves himself as a lyricist. Writing more in the realm of a great novelist, though not unlike David Bazan (Pedro The Lion) and Tony Dekker (The Great Lake Swimmers), Sheff surprises by being slightly more restrained but no less effective than on the band’s 2005 release, Black Sheep Boy. Vocally, Sheff still pushes the phrasing envelope, but this is the first time that his voice has really dared to match up with the music, which, until now, has seemed pleasantly out of sync. While the ghost of that experience is still present, there is more of a relationship at play between the musicians and their “front man.”
    In keeping with the idea of restraint, the band isn’t afraid to stay quiet and refuse to build to an epic climax, though they never sacrifice a lush sound in their arrangements. By narrowing their focus, as on songs like “A Girl in Port,” a rolling, pensive experience, the band shows how they’ve evolved. Instruments like the mandolin, pedal steel and organ defy their exclusive associations with folk and pop, and lend their rootsy qualities to this group of punk rockers who travel back and forth between several genres. Out of these treks comes the track “John Allyn Smith Sails,” the big finish and an ode to American poet John Berryman. With a clever turn of music and lyrics, they integrate the old folk tune “Sloop John B” into the last minute and a half of the song, which returns the album to a more punch-drunk version of its opening vigour.
    In a way, The Stage Names is predictable — meaning Okkervil River do everything that they can and should. No other path would make sense or sound as good as their ultimate destination.