Okkervil River are yet another band delving into the currently Omaha led indie rock fad. Fortunately, they bring some truly unique moments to their new album, Down the River of Golden Dreams. Unfortuantely, those moments are few and far between.

The instrumentation on DTROGD is at times impressive, and it does mesh well with Okkervil's vocals, which are reminiscent of an Elephant 6 band (plus I just noticed that if you put the band name at the end of the album name, the acronym becomes D Trogdor), and it does hold your interest quite well. The problem is that it's being done so much right now that a lot of the time it fails to stand out lyrically, emotionally, or musically. It is a solid, good album, but it isn't particularly spectacular; I get the impression that I would enjoy their live show quite a bit, but the record failed to leave much of an impression on me either way, with some notable exceptions, such as its first real track, "It Ends With a Fall", which is a truly great poppy/indie track where both music and vocals clearly shine.

Perhaps they just picked an unfortunate time to release their album, as there is quite a bit to like to like about this album, but it has too many formulaic indie rock songs which have been done before, and done better. Still, it is a relatively enjoyable record, and possibly a sign of bright things in the band's future.

-Dave Mandell