In the Rainbow Rain

An album that echoes the pull of modern pop, it’s rousing, revelatory, dynamic and demonstrative without negating any sort of bigger theme.

The result is an album that's deeply affecting, but which—even if it is—doesn't feel quite as personal or authentic as much of the band's previous output. It's also their most anachronistic record to date.

In the Rainbow Rain is unapologetic and adventurous; through it, Sheff and Co. don't ask us to ignore the world's problems, just to keep dancing in spite of them.

In The Rainbow Rain is an uncommonly jaunty listen.

With the exception of the dingy, dirty and grandiose boom of ‘Pulled Up The Ribbon’, most of In The Rainbow Rain is made up of occasionally-sombre songs cleverly disguised as up-beat, harmless, light-hearted tunes, which of course they’re not.

If Sheff's still finding the best way to speak this newly direct, loving language, its naked conviction is touchingly plain. [Jun 2018, p.33]

In the Rainbow Rain isn’t always this thematically dense, though, and its more laid-back songs help loosen the philosophical knots that tracks like “Human Being Song” tie.

Aside from the delightfully twee absurdity of that Eighties pop, the chorus of "Don't Move Back to L.A.," a Seventies folk-country plea to a lover not to abandon New York City (where Sheff now lives) for the temperate climate and friendlier rental market of Los Angeles, almost takes on an R&B tone in its earnestness. Sheff, however, still lends his compositions heft.

The songs here are among Okkervil’s lushest productions, adorned with choruses and horns and washes of sunny guitar, paired well with whatever subject Sheff happens to be tackling. Even when he gets too sappy, there’s always those stellar arrangements to serve as a saving grace.

It’s a soft reboot. It’s a new path to take. There’s the widest palette of any Okkervil River album, but it’s steady and doesn’t throw any needless curveballs.

Clearly Sheff is at something of a crossroads in his life and his world view is changing; perhaps he doesn’t quite know how best to make everything fit together just right. Given time, there are moments of this album that will shine, it’s just a shame there’s so few of them. 


Songs of promise, resilience and the occasional unpredictable turn. [Jul 2018, p.98]

It’s a compelling and moving opener to In the Rainbow Rain, but nothing else here scales the same heights.

Working with producer Shawn Everett (the War on Drugs, Alabama Shakes), Sheff has crafted his least-Okkervil River-sounding Okkervil River outing to date, employing a colorful palette of sonic hues that flirt with everything from soft rock and soul to left-field '80s synth pop and Beatlesque classic rock.

He mostly enchants, squaring literary pretensions with the band's happy fate as indie-rock comfort food. [Jun 2018, p.113]

Although there are some standouts on the album, like the vocal push-and-pull of "Don't Move Back to L.A.," the soulful "Shelter Song" and the dramatic buildup of "Human Being Song," Sheff sounds rather lost throughout this album, hampered by indecisive arrangements and ambling verses.