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Andy Webb View Drop Down
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Points: 13298 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: The Decemberists Appreciation Thread
    Posted: January 13 2015 at 12:44
It looks like one my favorite prog folk bands doesn't have their own thread, so I thought I'd make one for them.

A stream of their new album, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, dropped on The Guardian today, check it out here. 

From the sounds of it they're still in their Americana phase, but it does sound like there are some motes of their awesome sound that made me love them on Hazards of Love and The Crane Wife.

What are you guys' thoughts on the new album or this fully American prog folk band?
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Points: 12701 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 13 2015 at 13:53
Absolutely love The Crane Wife and Hazards of Love. Great story telling and musically adventurous.
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Points: 13298 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 13 2015 at 13:56
^My thoughts exactly. I felt like they departed from that with The King is Dead to focus on more songwriting, but I still loved the Americana style they implemented with that album. It sounds like they're continuing with that this album.
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Points: 12701 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 13 2015 at 14:28
Originally posted by Andy Webb Andy Webb wrote:

^My thoughts exactly. I felt like they departed from that with The King is Dead to focus on more songwriting, but I still loved the Americana style they implemented with that album. It sounds like they're continuing with that this album.
 
Yes, The King is Dead is very much an homage to Americana and particularly REM (Peter Buck actually played on a few songs, if I recall). The Decemberists are a band you can't categorize conveniently, which suits me fine. They were quite different for Picaresque and Her Majesty than they were for Crane Wife and Hazards. Evolving, phases, whatever you call it, it's an interesting ride. And no one in contemporary music can turn a phrase quite like Colin Meloy. Love the use of the word "prevaricate" on the new song. Who does that? LOL
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Points: 13249 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 13 2015 at 14:38
Thanks for sharing the stream, Andy. Sounds good

The Decemberists are one of the finest modern bands in the world. Intelligent folk rock, a joy to listen to. The new album is an absolutely auto buy in Lazland.
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Points: 24391 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 13 2015 at 16:02
I was disappointed by The King Is Dead because I thought the songwriting was not as good as on the previous albums, therefore all the songs tended to sound a bit too similar for comfort. However, those same songs truly came alive when performed on stage, as The Decemberists are one of the best live bands in the business. I hope they will add a DC or Baltimore date to their tour, because I'd really love to see them again (it would be the third time for us). In the meantime, if you are interested, this is what I wrote about their show at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in 2011: http://progmistress.com/2011/06/21/live-review-the-decemberists-at-merriweather-post-pavilion-columbia-md-june-13-2011/
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Points: 12701 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 13 2015 at 16:42
Originally posted by Raff Raff wrote:

I was disappointed by The King Is Dead because I thought the songwriting was not as good as on the previous albums, therefore all the songs tended to sound a bit too similar for comfort. However, those same songs truly came alive when performed on stage, as The Decemberists are one of the best live bands in the business. I hope they will add a DC or Baltimore date to their tour, because I'd really love to see them again (it would be the third time for us). In the meantime, if you are interested, this is what I wrote about their show at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in 2011: http://progmistress.com/2011/06/21/live-review-the-decemberists-at-merriweather-post-pavilion-columbia-md-june-13-2011/
They'll be appearing at the Royal Oak Music Theatre (in my city), and the nice thing is I can walk there (but not before passing a few pubs). Great, very small venue. Looking forward to it, as it sold out as soon as tickets were released.
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Points: 16952 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 13 2015 at 18:51
Thoughts on Picaresque? I honestly never see it mentioned and yet i find it to be the perfect agglomerate of their styles. They still had their more interesting songwriting in them with the longer songs on the album (Bagman's Gambit, Mariner's Revenge) and their more straight-forward songs still had some musical depth and the edge that i found on HoL.
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Points: 12600 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 13 2015 at 18:57
Great album I say-

My favorite is "The Lake Song"



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Points: 557 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 14 2015 at 03:58
Haven't heard them before, but I'm liking this new album a lot. Well arranged. I like the singer, strange (fake?) accent for an American, sounds almost like the singer of REM if he'd spent primary school in Australia or England, or something.
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Points: 1940 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 14 2015 at 07:29
Originally posted by Horizons Horizons wrote:

Thoughts on Picaresque? I honestly never see it mentioned and yet i find it to be the perfect agglomerate of their styles. They still had their more interesting songwriting in them with the longer songs on the album (Bagman's Gambit, Mariner's Revenge) and their more straight-forward songs still had some musical depth and the edge that i found on HoL.
It remains my personal favorite by them. The opening batch of songs really show the variety this gang can pull off...and all with exceptional lyrics. The LP version of this is great too as an extra collection of tunes were added comprising side 4, making it a full-fledged double album rather than one of those 2XLPs that last 12 minutes on each side.
 
I haven't seen The Decemberists yet, but I did see Colin Meloy in a solo performance in 2008. The man has great banter between songs (pretty funny guy) and with noone else on stage for the gig's duration I learned that he's quite the exceptional acoustic guitar player as well.
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Points: 13298 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 14 2015 at 08:28
Originally posted by Kazza3 Kazza3 wrote:

Haven't heard them before, but I'm liking this new album a lot. Well arranged. I like the singer, strange (fake?) accent for an American, sounds almost like the singer of REM if he'd spent primary school in Australia or England, or something.

Definitely check out Hazards of Love and Crane Wife. They're perhaps two of the best prog folk concept albums out there.

And Colin's accent is pretty typical for Portland, Oregon, I would say.
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Points: 26133 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 14 2015 at 08:50
Originally posted by Andy Webb Andy Webb wrote:

Originally posted by Kazza3 Kazza3 wrote:

Haven't heard them before, but I'm liking this new album a lot. Well arranged. I like the singer, strange (fake?) accent for an American, sounds almost like the singer of REM if he'd spent primary school in Australia or England, or something.

Definitely check out Hazards of Love and Crane Wife. They're perhaps two of the best prog folk concept albums out there.

And Colin's accent is pretty typical for Portland, Oregon, I would say.
I'm not generally a fan of the group, but Hazards of Love really took me by surprise, and I think it's one of the strongest story-based concept albums I've heard, up there with Lamb and The Wall.  It just has a perfect flow to it - you get involved with it, and the actual songs are uniformly strong.  Unfortunately, apart from The Tain, I haven't really enjoyed any other albums of theirs nearly as much.  I originally hopped on board with Picaresque and Crane Wife.  Good albums but not really my speed.  But for Hazards, they totally nailed it.
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Points: 20204 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 14 2015 at 11:52
Hazards & Crane Wife are excellent, the rest of their stuff doesn't do all that much for me. I should probably sample the new one and see how I feel. 

Funny story - My 20 something daughter was talking to a bunch of similarly aged people at her work the other day and they were raving about this new band they'd discovered called The Decemberists. She told them that her Dad had taken her to see them 4 years ago in Columbus on the Hazards Of Love tour.
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Padraic View Drop Down
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Points: 31165 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 14 2015 at 11:54
Originally posted by HolyMoly HolyMoly wrote:

Originally posted by Andy Webb Andy Webb wrote:

Originally posted by Kazza3 Kazza3 wrote:

Haven't heard them before, but I'm liking this new album a lot. Well arranged. I like the singer, strange (fake?) accent for an American, sounds almost like the singer of REM if he'd spent primary school in Australia or England, or something.

Definitely check out Hazards of Love and Crane Wife. They're perhaps two of the best prog folk concept albums out there.

And Colin's accent is pretty typical for Portland, Oregon, I would say.
I'm not generally a fan of the group, but Hazards of Love really took me by surprise, and I think it's one of the strongest story-based concept albums I've heard, up there with Lamb and The Wall.  It just has a perfect flow to it - you get involved with it, and the actual songs are uniformly strong.  Unfortunately, apart from The Tain, I haven't really enjoyed any other albums of theirs nearly as much.  I originally hopped on board with Picaresque and Crane Wife.  Good albums but not really my speed.  But for Hazards, they totally nailed it.


This is interesting Steve.  I had tried the Crane Wife several years ago and it just didn't click with me.  I'll have to give Hazards a go.  Thanks.
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Points: 20503 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 14 2015 at 14:11
As an old Fairport and Pentangle fanatic, I never warmed up to this band. But I'll definitely give them a second chance.
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Points: 46828 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 14 2015 at 14:28
Originally posted by Padraic Padraic wrote:

Originally posted by HolyMoly HolyMoly wrote:

Originally posted by Andy Webb Andy Webb wrote:

Originally posted by Kazza3 Kazza3 wrote:

Haven't heard them before, but I'm liking this new album a lot. Well arranged. I like the singer, strange (fake?) accent for an American, sounds almost like the singer of REM if he'd spent primary school in Australia or England, or something.

Definitely check out Hazards of Love and Crane Wife. They're perhaps two of the best prog folk concept albums out there.

And Colin's accent is pretty typical for Portland, Oregon, I would say.
I'm not generally a fan of the group, but Hazards of Love really took me by surprise, and I think it's one of the strongest story-based concept albums I've heard, up there with Lamb and The Wall.  It just has a perfect flow to it - you get involved with it, and the actual songs are uniformly strong.  Unfortunately, apart from The Tain, I haven't really enjoyed any other albums of theirs nearly as much.  I originally hopped on board with Picaresque and Crane Wife.  Good albums but not really my speed.  But for Hazards, they totally nailed it.


This is interesting Steve.  I had tried the Crane Wife several years ago and it just didn't click with me.  I'll have to give Hazards a go.  Thanks.


an amazing album Pat..  and right at the top of most moving concert experiences I've ever had. I was in tears and singing along with a couple of teenage girls sitting right next to Raff and I. If you let it.. it can grab you hard.. very hard.

 Steve is dead-on... it compares very favorably with the stone-cold classic concept albums.  Better than those fwiw IMO.. but I love the group so take that for what is worth.  LOL
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chopper View Drop Down
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Points: 19944 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 16 2015 at 07:34
There's a double page spread about them in The Sun today if anyone's interested.
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Points: 16913 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 16 2015 at 09:33
If you count yourself as a Decemberists fan, this is one album you really need to hear. 

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=36037

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Points: 13249 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 16 2015 at 10:29
Originally posted by chopper chopper wrote:

There's a double page spread about them in The Sun today if anyone's interested.


Interesting. They are not the type of band you normally associate with The Current Bun.....
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