Shearwater: Animal Joy

    I put Shearwater's SoundCloud page, through Sub Pop Records, on my bookmarks, planning on revisiting the album, Animal Joy, at a later date to see if it grew on me. And, it has. Jonathan Meiburg, lead singer, has much to do with that, as his voice has the sort of distinct color as does Matt Berninger (The National) or Guy Garvey (Elbow). I also find their harmonic use similar to Radiohead at times, not completely as Shearwater will throw in a really nice chord and it won't necessarily go where Radiohead will take it, but if it did anyone would mistaken it for a Thom Yorke composition. An older song of theirs, "The Snow Leopard", from Rook, is a good example. They also sound like Junip sometimes.
    Shearwater has quite the extensive discography actually, with Animal Joy being their seventh full release. Their other studio releases are: The Dissolving Room (2001), Everybody Makes Mistakes (2002), Winged Life (2004), Palo Santo (2006), Rook (2008), and The Golden Archipelago (2010). They have also self-produced a record called Shearwater is Enron (2010), which is a mostly improvised set of ten tracks that includes live material the band played as "Enron" in a show in Albuquerque in 2010. Two different EPs are also part of the mix, Theives (2005) and The Snow Leopard (2008). Most of their work is on the Misra Record label, while others are on Matador. Animal Joy is on Sub Pop.
    Shearwater originally had more members I believe when it was formed in Austin, Texas, in 1999. Its current trio is Meiburg, joined by his ex-wife, Kim Burke (bass), and drummer/vibraphonist Thor Harris. Will Sheff, one of its founders, is no longer with the band (he and Meiburg came from the alt-country/folk band Okkervil River). Apparently Shearwater has an affinity for animals. Many of their album covers have pictures of animals, as well as some album and song titles that refer to animals (i.e. Winged Life, Rook, "Sing, Little Birdie", "The Snow Leopard", "Rook"). Furthermore, their name comes from a seabird that has roughly 30 species, and was chosen by Meiburg who holds a degree in geography with an emphasis on ornithology. They claim it was decided upon because of the sound of Shearwater, but maybe just because they love birds.
    I see above I have written a lot about the band and not so much about their sound. So, I will do that now. Here's a closer look at Shearwater's album, Animal Joy:
(1) "Animal Joy" - simple guitar accompaniment and really nice melody, hopeful sounding, layers are gradually added and it is a nice blend by the end.
(2) "Breaking the Yearlings" - heavier track overall, rhythmic and driving.
(3) "Dread Sovereign" - more laid back, with the Junip-esque guitar timbre, a simple repeating rhythm and lyrical melody overtop, background vocals of Meiburg dubbed in later as well.
(4) "You as You Were" - vibraphone and piano rock, with drums coming in later, tune cooks all the way tot the end, but has fairly simple chords over and over again--nevertheless effective and climactic.
(5) "Insolence" - very subdued, a slow steady beat that sounds like brushes on snare, choruses increase the volume a bit with nice guitar chords and distortion towards the end.
(6) "Immaculate" - another up tempo track, with guitar driven hooks, kind of sounds like a folk band that has just found electric guitars or something.
(7) "Open Your Houses" - more repeated drum beats, kind of a slow "boom chick", with some piano and chorus is "Open up, open up, open up...", fades out.
(8) "Run the Banner Down" - very nice smooth softer track, with some shaker, and drums played with timpani sticks (soft tips), folksy and soothing--love the ending with the chord that just sits and fades.
(9) "Pushing the River" - up tempo drumming, smeary dreamy guitar, with acoustic on the main verses, contains an interlude of sorts where everything sort of dies down before coming back stronger.
(10) "Star of the Age" - more of the same heavy drum beat, semi-slow, with vocals on top of the texture, and a mix of ethereal piano and guitar sounds, even some harp I think--fade out.
    Check out the entire album streamed on Sup Pop's SoundCloud here. Also MySpace has it here if you prefer that. And a rundown of their discography is on Shearwater's website here, and you can listen to a few tracks from older records there also. I have linked the song "Breaking the Yearlings" over under 'Monthly Sample Tracks'. Enjoy!