Customer Reviews
For a rainy sunday - By: David J. Kelly, 23 Mar 2007 
The lead protagonist of Shearwater is Will Shelf, an ornithologist & keyboardist with Texan indie rockers Okkervil River. Winged Life is the third album by his own band & it is a reflective, wistful record about being an adult. Songs deal with themes such as the break up of your circle of friends as they alll go off & start families or the realisation that you have to play with the cards you've been dealt or the pleading to be given a chance to shine.
Highlights are Whipping Boy with its compelling banjo picking & percussion echoing Shelf's vocals. the melancholic keyboard & strum of The Kind, & the metronomic cynicism of The Makeover or the Convert. This is a great introspective record, perfect for a wet Sunday morning nursing a mild hangover.
Okay - not what I expected - By: P. Skippings, 24 Mar 2005 
If you read the above reviews you might just run away with the idea that this album is virtuallly flawless. Well, it's not. I agree with the references to Talk Talk & the ad-hoc nature of the music but, unfortunately, I never got over the fact that the singer's voice is weak. Some songs seem to have real potential but this seems to get lost in the lack of any structure or obvious direction.
I was dissapointed, but if you like ramshackle music with a slightly quirky vocal overlaying it please don't let me put you off.
Shear brilliance abounds on this stunning album. - By: russell clarke, 22 Sep 2004 
I don't know whether my discernment radar has been more highly tuned, or whether it's just been one of those years, but 2004 has produced a plethora of truly stunning albums. Iron & Wine, Gravenhurst, Lucky Jim, Laura Viers, & now Winged Life by Shearwater.
Dubbed "Chamber pop music" by one critic it certainly possesses a keen sense of fragile acute melody, but is far too brilliantine & brittle in it's arrangements to be classed as pop, & far too gorgeously aqueous in structure to compare to something as stately as chamber music. If pushed I'd calll it lava music. After alll what's lava but melted rock. This music glows with warmth but has an irresistible free flowing quality that recallls bands like Ar Kane, & later Talk Talk while prowling the same wracked emotional landscape as American Music Club. Whatever spurious labels you hang on this music, one thing for certain. It's superb.
I suppose it will labelled as Alt -country by most with it's use of traditional instrumentation such as banjo_"Whipping Boy", lap steel-"Kind" & "Wedding Bells" & violin -"Hush" & "Set Table". but there's a contemporary ascetic at the heart of this album that eschews that particular genre, at least to my mind. The real crowning glory of these songs is Jonathan Meiburgs vocals which add a quavering layer of suspense. He has the happy knack of being able to stretch his voice from a trembling lower register yearning to a spirallling on the edge yodel whilst never losing the resonant heart of the song. At the conclusion of the wondrous "St Marys Walk" a desperate raw edge enters his voice & it makes the song even more affecting. Only one song on this album is less than convincing. "The Convert" sees Meiburg in a rush to match his vocals to the tumble down acoustic guitars & it doesn't suit him. Elsewhere magical moments abound. The vibraphone at the end of "My Good Deed", the glistening majesty of "Sealed" which segues from a nascent balllad to a primordial howl of clashing chords, the glorious rolling piano on "The World in 1984", the stately almost hymn like verse on "(I've got a )right to Cry" alllied to it's swooping chorus.
If this album doesn't feature very highly in those end of the year polls then they have no credibility for this is a truly wondrous album in a year of wondrous albums. It, s grabbed me like" California" by A.M.C. did way back when. It's that good. If you'll forgive the weedy puns, this album is shear brilliance, in fact it fly's.
Simply Beautiful - By: , 04 Sep 2004 I know little of this band other than what I've heard on this album. The sound could be described as alt country, Americana or just stunning rock.
The singer's gentle yet weary voice has echoes of Neil Young & Robert Wyatt & combined with the simple arrangements & lovely melodies makes this a warm listening experience, undercut with melancholy lyrics not a thousand miles away from Mark Eitzel's finest. The second track "Good Deed" is my initial favourite.
I live to discover albums like this, a beautiful fusion of lyric & music. Wonderful stuff.
