Long live The Decemberists
The Decemberists' sixth fulllength
album is a twist on bluegrass,
folk, rock and harmonious
vocals to compliment a very well
crafted 10-song CD, The King is
Dead.
There are those who criticised The Decemberists' past efforts (2009's The Hazards of Love and 2006's The Crane Wife being most recent) as being too wordy and fairy-tale-esque, but the imaginative songwriting is what makes this album stand out. The lyrics are what is going to make this album praiseworthy come December 2011. When critics compile their year-end lists of the top albums of 2011, The King is Dead is bound to be included.
With each song, there is a short tale of morale and consequence. The songwriting hints at frontman Colin Meloy's talent at prose: Meloy has just finished writing his first adventure novel with the illustration and artwork done by his wife.
Don't Carry It All is a welcoming opener, like a stranger offering you a hand with a stubborn door. One of the best songs on the album, there is a combination of accordion, violin and harmonica with acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums and mandolin.
In Rise to Me, the self-determining words play: "I am going to stand my ground; You stand to me and I'll blow you down; I'm going to stand my ground; You rise to me and I'll blow you down."
It's a wise saying for The Decemberists to forget their naysayers and concentrate on what they want to accomplish.
Further allegory is demonstrated with This Is Why We Fight. In the quake of mass destruction, "Come to me now, lay your arms around me; This is why, this is why we fight," Meloy sings of fighting not being a solution, but a detriment.
Peter Buck of R.E.M. contributes to Calamity Song and Down by the Water, as well as Don't Carry It All, which recalls the familiar sound of Michael Stipe singing, "This one goes out to the one I love." Gillian Welch sings on seven songs (she has worked with Alison Krauss, Ryan Adams and Emmylou Harris, and both she and her songwriting partner, Dave Rawlings, appear every so often on The Decemberists' album).
Finally, the album has the Portland, Oregon natives making Billboard Magazine's Top 200: their album debuted at number one and sold 94,000 copies early January of this year.
For more information, visit thedecemberists.com or myspace.com/thedecemberists.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
There are those who criticised The Decemberists' past efforts (2009's The Hazards of Love and 2006's The Crane Wife being most recent) as being too wordy and fairy-tale-esque, but the imaginative songwriting is what makes this album stand out. The lyrics are what is going to make this album praiseworthy come December 2011. When critics compile their year-end lists of the top albums of 2011, The King is Dead is bound to be included.
With each song, there is a short tale of morale and consequence. The songwriting hints at frontman Colin Meloy's talent at prose: Meloy has just finished writing his first adventure novel with the illustration and artwork done by his wife.
Don't Carry It All is a welcoming opener, like a stranger offering you a hand with a stubborn door. One of the best songs on the album, there is a combination of accordion, violin and harmonica with acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums and mandolin.
In Rise to Me, the self-determining words play: "I am going to stand my ground; You stand to me and I'll blow you down; I'm going to stand my ground; You rise to me and I'll blow you down."
It's a wise saying for The Decemberists to forget their naysayers and concentrate on what they want to accomplish.
Further allegory is demonstrated with This Is Why We Fight. In the quake of mass destruction, "Come to me now, lay your arms around me; This is why, this is why we fight," Meloy sings of fighting not being a solution, but a detriment.
Peter Buck of R.E.M. contributes to Calamity Song and Down by the Water, as well as Don't Carry It All, which recalls the familiar sound of Michael Stipe singing, "This one goes out to the one I love." Gillian Welch sings on seven songs (she has worked with Alison Krauss, Ryan Adams and Emmylou Harris, and both she and her songwriting partner, Dave Rawlings, appear every so often on The Decemberists' album).
Finally, the album has the Portland, Oregon natives making Billboard Magazine's Top 200: their album debuted at number one and sold 94,000 copies early January of this year.
For more information, visit thedecemberists.com or myspace.com/thedecemberists.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
