16 MILITARY WIVES

This is the shortest and also the most difficult to locate CD single from the Decemberists. "16 Military Wives" is the anti-establishment hilarious noveau-Pete Seeger rant against nationalist arrogance and hubris off the 'Picaresque' album, and the Kafka-like "KingdoM of Spain" comes from the 'Picaresquities' EP that was issued with the vinyl version of that album (and later on it's own CD).

"Kingdom of Spain" includes the great lines "the King and the Queen of Spain with their long unpronnouncable names" and "we're all just fodder as the cannonades drum our sons and daughters", both of which are perfectly understandable sentiments for a guy who grew up in the obsessively independent and libertarian U.S. state of Montana.

This is only a single, so it doesn't qualify for much consideration as a substantive work by the band. But it is a bit hard to find, and will undoubtedly increase in value over time. Plus it includes two of the band's better tunes from their third album, so it's a pretty decent investment and a nice sampler if you can locate it.

And if you feel like getting on a rant about The Man and sitting in your basement under a bare lightbulb writing angry letters to the government or drafting your manifesto or something like that, this will certainly put you in the mood.

So three stars and a hearty 'Power to the People!'. Enjoy.

peace

2 tracks on this release. The first is "16 Military Wives", from The Decemberists PICARESQUE cd. While I really enjoy much of that release, including "Mariner's Revenge Song" and "Eli, The Barrow Boy" both great folk tunes, this song I find to be more middle-of-the-road pop/rock. It is not a bad song, and has some interesting political comments to make, but it is just average in the pantheon of Decemberist material. The second song here is "The Kingdom of Spain", which is a great and heartfelt rendering of what I think is a song that fits in well with another song called "The Infanta" from PICARESQUE, also dealing with Spain and their lost empire. I think, anyways, that is the meaning here. Could be wrong, I often am. "The Kingdom of Spain" is from an EP that went along with the album which I do not have, so this is my first exposure and I enjoyed it immensely! 3 stars overall for these 2 songs. 2 for the first and 4 for the last.