THE KING IS DEAD

With their sixth studio album in a nine years spam (quite impressive for today standards), The Decemberists had the almost impossible mission to outdo the previous ambitious masterpiece, The Hazards of Love. Well, by the average rating that it's receiving in this site, it is clear that they've failed to achieve this.

Colin Meloy and his comrades decided to renew their sound by infusing a strong R.E.M. and Americana influence. The constant presence of harmonica interplay, violin melodies and pedal steel guitar fills marks this 40 minutes recording. Also, it is by far the band's most pastoral album. Although most reviewers here found the changes a major step back, I think of it more as a minor step back and a turn of direction. However, I was eager to hear the band push their progressive edge forward to places unexplored.

Qualities:

. Colin's songwriting continues cleverly well thought;

. The refined melodies and production;

. The work of Chris Funk on the pedal steel guitar is excellent, especially on "Rise to Me";

Demerits:

. Complete suppression of the progressive edge the band had been developing on previous recordings;

. While the album is pretty consistent, it lacks from stand-out tracks; . Most of the songs follow the basic structure "verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-chorus" in a derivative way;

Track Score: Don't Carry It All (7.5/10), Calamity Song (7.5/10), Rise To Me (9.0/10), Rox In The Box (7.0/10), January Hymn (7.5/10), Down By The Water (6.0/10), All Arise! (7.0/10), June Hymn (7.0/10), This Is Why We Fight (8.0/10), Dear Avery (7.5/10).

Final score: 7.0/10 = 3 stars

A good album, quite enjoyable when you're willing to hear country-esque pop tunes.