“Lost Coastlines” - Okkervil River
(Words/music: Will Sheff, found on The Stand Ins, Jagjaguwar 2008)

Part of my goal for this project is to help me better understand why I like certain songs (or certain types of songs, at least).  “Lost Coastlines” is an interesting one for me because it was one of my favorites (if not the favorite) of the end of 2008 and I can’t quite pinpoint why.  It’s a well written song, but I’m wont to point out the Klosterman-esque “Good Part” of a song and I can’t identify it here.

Maybe the secret lies in its structure; the song itself is rife with contradictions. Will Sheff’s capable yet somewhat nasally voice mingles with former bandmate / Shearwater frontman Jon Meiburg’s cool croon on alternating verses.  The arrangement contrasts a peppy, upbeat instrumentation (in particular, the snaking bass line propels the song along faster and faster) with lyrics that touch on the loneliness and apprehension before an uncertain voyage.  Sheff and Meiberg seem like two different parts of a conflicted mind - Meiberg’s voice expressing the relaxed, rational thoughts while Sheff’s vocals express the fear and restlessness of the narrator as the boat sails off from civilization.  The song itself shifts halfway through when Sheff finally notes that “we have lost our way / nobody’s gonna say it outright.”  By finally acknowledging that the crew is lost, the song finds its own way to a climax filled with cascading horns and soaring “la”s from both singers, propelling the song (and also the Stand-Ins album) outward onto its unknown journey.

So in a way, this song fits well at this point of my “project” - I too have nothing else to add as to why I like this song (or why I like most songs, to be honest), so I’ll just join in with Will Sheff’s final few minutes of “la la la”s and see where the rest of the journey takes me.

PS - Here’s a link to a YouTube video of Sheff and Carl Newman of the New Pornographers singing the song together.  Interestingly, Newman sings Sheff’s part and Sheff sings Meiburg’s.

More on Okkervil River: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm