Review Summary: The Decemberists, seemingly intent on visiting both extremes, abandon prog completely and create an extremely effective folk album instead.
Before now, The Decemberist's evolution mostly made sense. They started out as a folky Neutral Milk Hotel-inspired indie band, then dipped their feet into prog with the critically acclaimed
The Crane Wife, and then finally dove in head first with their lukewarmly received 2009 effort
The Hazards of Love. Logically one would expect either a more conservative step back into folk-prog territory, or a full-on prog album. With
The King Is Dead, however, The Decemberists take a 180 degree turn and end up sounding ever more folk-inspired than in anything they released before it.
I'm going to warn Decemberists fans right out: this
can be described as a country album. Not the pop-country that is the bane of the existence of many music-listeners, old-fashioned folksy harmonica-tinged 1950s country. This could make-or-break the album, but if you keep an open mind towards it, the effect is quite comforting and almost familiar. As an indicator, they "sample" "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies" in the square-dance-esque "Rox in a Box", complete with a fiddle solo. Anybody expecting a sound patterned off
R.E.M. based on the single "Down By the Water" and band interviews may be disappointed, but I found myself more engrossed in this new sound than I would have been in a take-off of "Life's Rich Pageant". This by no means an ordinary Decemberists album, but since when has there ever been?
The King Is Dead, musically, is a gorgeous album. There's nothing ground-breaking on it, just beautiful songs. "January Hymn" stands up next to Decemberists classics like "Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect" and "The Engine Driver". Almost every song is accompanied with an acoustic guitar, sometimes used for a steely sound in the background of more upbeat songs or a softer, campfire sound. Despite the general lack of electric guitar, an instrument that was put almost to the forefront in
The Hazards of Love, the album never gets boring or repetitive, a quality owing to the quality of Colin Meloy's songwriting. The prog sound ends up returning temporarily in the song "This Is Why We Fight" being used more like The Crane Wife, to complement the folk music rather than overshadow it, indicating that they might now be finished with the genre completely. Overall, people who need the music they listen to to balance experimentation and sound may not be happy. However it's impossible to call The Decemberists unambitious, considering a mainstream act hasn't ever gone from releasing a 18-track prog-rock opera to a 10-track summer country album in the space of 2 years.
I see
The King Is Dead as potential love-it/hate-it album. Classic country music fans will absolutely love this, but people who think that Hazards of Love is miles better than Castaways and Cutouts may be disappointed. Almost every song on this album is absolutely beautiful, but the drastic change from the band's seemingly logical sound progression may rub some people wrong.
Pros:
- Excellent guitar work
- A really interesting departure from both prog-rock and indie
- All the songs achieve what they set out to, whether it's a quiet campfire sound or an upbeat square-dance
- The fiddle and harmonica are used extremely well without feeling gimmicky
Cons:
- The new sound may turn off recent fans
- Works best as a nostalgia piece for people who grew up surrounded by classic country music. It doesn't rely on it though.
Definitely Download:
January Hymn
Rox In a Box
Dear Avery
