Single Review: Shearwater, ‘Breaking The Yearlings’

It’s unsurprising that over the last few years Shearwater have been consistently labelled the sort of band best listened to across the full course of an album; frontman and former Okkervil River member Jonathan Meiburg’s vision has often had, quite simply, too much scope to be done justice by anything other than a full-length record.

Times change however and with their latest LP ‘Animal Joy’, Shearwater have undergone a stark turnaround; maintaining the widescreen melodrama that has been the consistent mark of much of their output while writhing with something far more personal and, oddly enough, instantly accessible too.

Animal Joy’s first single ‘Breaking the Yearlings’ is the perfect measure of this sea change. Coming to life on a buoyant single guitar line and polyrhythmic percussion section, the track springs into action with a drumbeat that is stuttering, astounding and powerful in equal measure. Juxtapose this with Meiburg’s transcendent and captivating vocal lines and you’re left with something that previous Shearwater records have all too often lacked; an immediately strong single.

Across the track’s relatively short three-minute lifespan, Meiburg exorcises demons in a far less histrionic manner than his former Shearwater and Okkervil River colleague Will Sheff, that’s not to say it’s any less effective though; if anything it’s more so, the pastoral imagery cutting deep into the music’s dense sonic space.

The fact Shearwater have managed to craft something so simultaneously insular and accessible is credit to their ongoing growth as an act; constantly evolving, consistently shifting expectations and with each release moving more out of Okkervil River’s looming shadow.

By Alex Cull