Send "The Decemberists " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork. |
 To the Decemberists's credit, they're committed to the idea of challenging themselves, of taking their brand of bookish songwriting in different directions with each new album. While their last effort, 2009's The Hazards of Love, was undermined by its needlessly complex mythology and ornate folk-rock arrangements, the band's latest album impresses for its relative simplicity. The King Is Dead drops the Decemberists's fussy, often overworked period-piece fetish and aims for the accessibility of American folk music. That stylistic shift generally works in the band's favor. They've built their reputation on drawing heavily from the high poetics of the British folk movement, but the straightforward lyrics and arrangements that are hallmarks of American folk serve to rein in some of frontman Colin Meloy's most cloying, nebbish tendencies. In lieu of extended metaphors about child murder, prostitutes, or unfortunate women who are ravaged by forest creatures, The King Is Dead consists of refreshingly direct songs. Opener "Don't Carry It All" is a testament to civility and social justice, peaking with Meloy's clear-voiced declaration: "You must bear your neighbor's burden within reason/And your labors will be borne when all is done." The Decemberists aren't necessarily known for uplift, but "All Arise!" and standout "This Is Why We Fight" champion the values of perseverance and cautious optimism. "When we die/We will die/With our arms unbound/This is why we fight" may not be the catchiest hook, but Meloy delivers the line with conviction, and the song's forceful arrangement helps to turn it into something of a rallying cry. The minor-key arrangement on "Rox in the Box" is just as effective in making that track's thin lyrical hook ("If you make it to 10/You won't make it again") play as an ominous warning, while the album's preoccupation with the changing of the seasons comes to a head on the foreboding, oblique narrative of "Down By the Water." When The King Is Dead stumbles, it's because the arrangements either do a disproportionate amount of heavy lifting on songs with weak lyrics, such as the meandering "June Hymn," or because the production comes across as strident. The country flourishes on "All Arise!" and "January Hymn" aren't a natural sounding extension of the Decemberists's well-established aesthetic, and the use of harmonicas and banjos often sounds like someone thought those touches were simply supposed to be there as genre signifiers, not because they add anything to the arrangements themselves....full text |
| Musicomh |
| Given their literary, fairy-dusted position in the realm of indie rock, The Decemberists' 2009 album The Hazards Of Love could've served as their self-parodying demise. Its predecessor The Crane Wife certainly flirted with wide-open theatricals - songs marked with Pt. 1, 2, and 3 tend to turn albums into self-contained stories - but it got nowhere near the indulgence of Hazards. Something of a rock opera, despite its dizzying scope and flat-out goofiness it encompassed exactly the kind of record nobody expected The Decemberists to ever make. However, maybe as a response to the critical kiss-off, The King Is Dead lands on the exact opposite side of the barometer. While Hazards crammed preludes, reprises and character roles into 17 tracks, this new work is a breezy stroll down the band's folkier tendencies, getting away from arc-swollen concept album territory and back to what originally made the band great - pastoral, warmhearted melodies and briskly written lyrics. As the pre-release buzz promised, The King Is Dead is a more country-driven affair than before. The first sound to be heard on the album is a siren, almost atonal blast of Bob Dylan-esque harmonica. Pedal steel appears and reappears throughout, and often Jenny Conlee joins Colin Meloy's trademark tenor in a Conway/Loretta throwback dynamic. But these aesthetics are mere stylistic choices. The Decemberists certainly haven't written a country album; they're just colouring their songs a little differently. The focus, as always, is thankfully centred on Meloy's knack for storytelling....full text |
The Decemberists lyrics
