The Decemberists new album, "The King Is Dead"

 

What I like about the album is that it continues a fine tradition.  Neil Young/Nicollette Larson, Emmylou/Gram or even Emmylou/Mark.  And yes Ian & Sylvia.  As I said in my review, it's Gillian Welch that makes the album.  I liked her contribution such that I now have her first album, which by the way is pretty damned good. 

 

Even I would not argue it's prog, but it's certainly beautiful music.  But of course my ears have been listening to this sort of thing for 40 years and are inured to non-prog, though absolutely heartfelt, assaults.  It comes from the flank, like an invading army...the pedal steel, the harmonies, the crappy harmonica wails, the backwoods accordion.  To paraphrase Buck Owens, all we gotta do is act naturally.   

 

 

 

I'll stand up for the band and the album.  Hey, they're just from down the road, either south or east.   Name one recent song that has the all-out emotion of This Is Why We Fight.  Then let me judge it.  I've got a couple of twenty-something kids, and they don't bring stuff like this around very often, in spite of what they may think about Arcade Fire.

 

I didn't hear too many five dollar words (trillium...gabardine...them's only worth a couple bucks).  References to Leda and Infinite Jest...realistically anyone who does not recognize these references had best familiarize themselves with Greek mythology (probably requisite for understanding half of prog lyrics, or at least band names, anyway ) and David Foster Wallace.  Still, only couple buck references.  Not saying I get even half of the allusions, but they are fairly obvious on this particular album.

 

 

 

There are some great moments, and some nice tight songwriting, but there are alot of bands doing this style right now. Some of them are alot better at it. For me, the draw of the Decemberists was that they added some extra spice to the mix. Eside from still using alot of five dollar words, not too much habanero here.

 

There are some good songs though.

 

I would guess that if you are not a fan of say, Neil Young (Harvest-era), or maybe Springsteen (The River) or The Band (The Band), or Fairport/Richard Thompson, then this would not be a favorite.  Not to mention R.E.M., who I never really liked, but I suppose if they had sounded like this...

 

 But then, as I've mentioned many times before, anything that has decent pedal steel sucks me right in.

 

I very clearly remember buying a vinyl copy of the R.E.M. EP 'Chronic Town' when it came out in 1982, and I remember how I felt when I listened to it for the first time.  I felt exactly the same way when I played 'the King is Dead', and frankly it was a little creepy. 

 

If nothing else I have to say that Colin Meloy refuses to be pigeonholed into one sound, he takes risks, and he realizes that constant change is a necessary ingredient for success.  Even if I don't end up loving this one as much as most of the prior albums I am quite confident that the record will at least keep my appetite whetted for whatever comes next.

 

 

So good for The Decemberists.  Here's a link to their recent version of the Dead's Row Jimmy, which apparently is not on the new album, though I'm assuming it's representative of what we'll hear.  Sounds great to me.