Blog: Music @ Blogcritics.org

Okkervil River's latest album is heavy on the dark stuff - and that's a good thing. Essentially a sequel to 2007's The Stage Names, which was briefly considered for release as a two-disc album before being scaled down to a single album, Okkervil River's The Stand Ins uses central images of musicians and life on the stage to again address many of the themes that first surfaced on the band's 2007 album. Such a back...