Talk Talk covering early Elton John or Bert Jansch anticipating the Smiths; that's as close as we can get to describing Shearwater's Winged Life in the punchy first line of a one-sheet. The truth is that, with its elaborate and unconventional arrangements, richly layered production and conscious efforts to not recreate the past, this is a difficult record to pigeonhole. One or two songs on Winged Life partake of the somber, restrained delicacy of Shearwater's last two records, but everywhere else the band has loosened up, allowed that delicacy to bloom or crumble, and is trying new things - from the dark and urgent groove of "Whipping Boy" to the buoyant pop of "A Makeover," from the "The World in 1984"'s wry soft rock to the almost prog-y tension of "Sealed." As a result, Winged Life bridges many musical gaps - its songs are melodic and narrative-based enough to appeal to fans of Belle & Sebastian, yet unique enough to be mentioned in the same breath as artists like the Notwist or Broken Social Scene.
Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg, also the keyboardist for Okkervil River, is here backed up by that band's lead singer Will Sheff (who contributes five of the songs on Winged Life) as well as drummer and vibraphonist Thor Harris (who also plays with the Angels of Light and Devendra Banhart) and upright-bassist Kim Burke. Meiburg's sweet, soaring vocals land him somewhere between Mark Hollis and Colin Blunstone, with a detectable touch of choirboy formality; his voice and Sheff's swim through a sea of instruments ñ guitars, violins, B-3 Hammond organ, pump organ, lap steel, vibes, Wurlitzer, sampler, glockenspiel, and piano -- all pristinely recorded by Centro-matic's Matt Pence at Echo Lab studio in Denton, TX .
Taking a break from his other life an ornithology graduate student and bird obsessive (incidentally he is the world's leading expert on the South American Striated Caracara [Phalcoboenus Australis] ), Meiburg first formed Shearwater with Sheff in 2000 as a vehicle for accumulated songs the two had recently written. Their first record, the stark The Dissolving Room, was released by Chicago label Grey Flat in 2001. The band followed it up with the even starker, atmospheric concept album Everybody Makes Mistakes - their first release on Misra - the following year. For this, their third record, the band has thrown starkness out the window and brought everything but the kitchen sink into the mix; recording sessions for Winged Life were exuberantly productive, and only 12 of the 22 songs the band recorded are here included (with other tracks to surface later). The resulting sound is that of a band who have learned their lessons from binding themselves to the joys of care and restraint, but are now ready to happily toss both aside and grow wings.
