I Am Very Far is sonically the most brash and tender Okkervil River has ever sounded, forgoing their usual rock and roll mythologizing in favor of a stream of consciousness tableau, and cranking the studio trickery up to 11. They rock harder, they get weirder, and end up revealing a bruised tenderness underneath the Spectoresque walls of sound. I come back to this record a few times a year and discover things I missed the last time; the tape manipulations as guitar solo in “Piratess,” the absolute loveliness of the dramatic strings on “The Valley,” the desperation in Will Sheff’s purring over a reported 45 classical guitars strumming over “We Need A Myth,” and the slow burning beauty of what might be the band’s greatest ballad, “Show Yourself.” It’s an underrated chapter in the Okkervil catalog, and one I find myself revisiting more than any other.