Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg doesn't have the manic vocal drama of his Okkervil River bandmate Will Sheff. Where Sheff might build his smart aleck lyrics from whispers to a cathartic scream, Meiburg is content to simmer and spook in his high register all song long. "Rooks," the first song from the Austin band's June-scheduled album Rook, continues the lyrical bird fetish that lead former ornithologist Meiburg to name his band after a gull in the first place. The rooks here (as in European crows, not chess pieces) are in Hitchcockian quantites, though more disturbing than bloodthirsty as they drop dead from the sky blocking roads and choking normal life. Throughout, Meiburg seems collected and his music gentle; apocalyptic murmurs without accompanying booms. As the song progresses and the tension builds he leaves our plane entirely, unveiling a falsetto that's almost high beyond comprehension. He's transcended the grounded detail of the song's start and is already rising to rapture. And if that's the record's starting point, then we're going to need a few new synonyms for epic come July.