Okkervil River usually have the unenviable perception as being that other Indie-Rock band from Austin, Texas (damn you Spoon!) and lead singer Will Sheff always seems to be in the shadow of the similar sounding Connor Oberst from Bright Eyes, but The Stage Names should finally be the album that gets Okkervil River over that hump and brings them into their completely respected own.

The Stage Names find Sheff and company in creative explosion mode as a band. They sound tighter and brighter than ever before and listening to it gives you that I-can't-believe-this-is-the-same-band kind of feeling. Tracks such as the opening "Our Life is Not A Movie or Maybe" and the rollicking "Unless It's Kicks" are probably the best band oriented songs of Okkervil's career. Anyone who is familiar with O.R.'s past though knows that the bread and butter of the River is Sheff's songwriting and Stage Names finds him at the very top of his game, gunning to make a name for himself once and for all. Take for instance "Savannah Smiles," a song about a father regretting reading his daughter's diary or the superb "Plus Ones" that has more witty lyrical references to the titles of other artists songs than I've ever heard. Half the fun of that song is just trying to recognize them all.

Okkerville River have raised the bar for themselves with surprisingly compelling effort -there's nothing like the sound of confidence firing on all cylinders, The Stage Names will go down as one of the best Indie-Rock records of the year.