THE CRANE WIFE

The Crane Wife is the fourth full-length studio album by progressive folk rock act The Decemberists. I´m not too familiar with the band´s back catalogue having only listened to the debut album but I´m sure glad I gave The Crane Wife a chance.

The music on the album is for the most part vers/ chorus structured folk rock songs with great vocals and vocal harmonies, Hammond organ, pump organ, Wurlitzer, Moog, acoustic and electric guitars, drums, percussion, cello, dulcimer, banjo, bouzouki, bass and upright bass, glockenspiel and accordion. A really interesting blend of instruments that gives the album a very warm sound. As mentioned most songs are pretty ordinary in structure but there are two songs that stand out. It´s the 12:26 minute long The Island and the 11:19 minute long The Crane Wife 1 & 2. The first is fantastic and by far the most progressive and interesting song on the album while the latter is excellent too but not as progressive. The rest of the songs excel in strong melodies and great atmosphere even though they don´t do much to challenge me. It´s not required even though the album would have been even better IMO if The Decemberists had chosen to include more progressive ideas in the songs. It´s still a very well written, well performed and well produced album and a 3.5 - 4 star rating is well deserved. Don´t go into this album expecting to be blown away by long progressive sections though. This is more than anything a song and vocal based folk rock album.