The Silver Gymnasium isn’t nostalgic—it’s factual. It’s real. It all happened and can’t again. And that is magical: “We can never go back. We can only remember.”
I’m not sure if I’d call it a completely happy album, as there’s still darkness creeping around the edges, and also because it defies simplification. And yet maybe that’s the point. Okkervil River wanted to create something that was accessible. They wanted to create something that had warmth.
Unlike the labored Very Far, this time the songs seem to pour out of Sheff, fueling the band’s jauntiest, peppiest record since 2007’s The Stage Names.
Release Date
August 30, 2013
How others rate it
The #12 rated album of 2013 on Quiet Banger.
The #6 rated album by Okkervil River on Quiet Banger.
Producers