Shearwater

Over

Shearwater orbit around the voice and vision of Jonathan Meiburg, whose songs have always felt rooted in the natural world, full of bird imagery and big melodic swells that are somehow both cerebral and intimate. The Austin indie rock band grew out of a collaboration between Meiburg and Okkervil River's Will Sheff, though Meiburg eventually took sole creative control and built the project into something distinctly his own. Their 2006 record Palo Santo earned serious critical heat, with NPR naming it the best album of that year, and the Island Arc trilogy that closed with The Golden Archipelago in 2010 remains a high water mark for the band. From there Shearwater kept shifting shape. Animal Joy on Sub Pop pushed things in a harder, rockier direction, and Fellow Travelers was a genuinely unusual detour, a full album of covers where the original artists were invited to play along, just not on their own songs. Meiburg has also branched out into the Loma side project, but Shearwater keeps pulling him back with new material and evolving lineups.