Loosely revolving around a motif of Tim Hardin’s song “Black Sheep Boy,” this album is Okkervil River’s sublime pinnacle to date. There’s a detached anomie at play throughout Black Sheep Boy, from the fractured rage that imbues “For Real,” to the rollicking, anthemic “Black,” which belies its carnival-esque keyboard melody with a pitch-black subject matter of the lasting scars of physical and emotional abuse. But there’s a beating heart crying out to be loved throughout these 12 sensational tracks, from the jilted lover of “Song of Our So-Called Friend,” with his offer of unrequited love, and even the seemingly incorrigible Black Sheep Boy, who emerges full bloom on the spectacular penultimate track “So Come Back, I Am Waiting,” obsessing over the object of his obsession while a knotty cacophony of guitars and sawing cello imbue Sheff’s affected puff-chested proclamations. The album’s magnum opus eventually veers into a seemingly subconscious territory, as Sheff intones over stentorian instrumentation, “Killing softly and serial/ He lifts his head, handsome, horned, magisterial/ He’s the smell of the moonlight wisteria/ He’s the thrill of the abecedarian/ See the muddy hoofprints where he carried you?” It’s unrepentant rage, but there’s also a plaintive yearning expressed in his full-throated plea to “Come back and we’ll take them all on/ So come back to your life on the land/ So come back to your old black sheep man. I’m waiting on hope and on pen. I’m waiting all hated and damned. I’m waiting I snort and I stare. I’m waiting you know that I am. Calmly waiting to make you my lamb.” The lamb symbolizes a equanimity perhaps, and it’s never attained, as closing track “The Glow” has the dirge-like feel of a wake. Black Sheep Boy isn’t an easy listen, but it’s one hell of a ride through wanton violence, pathological obsession, and the universal need for unconditional love. Nothing’s black and white here. The lines between good and evil blur like water colors blended on stark canvas, and that’s precisely what renders Black Sheep Boy such a superb album.