Rating:

I’m going to start this review by admitting that I’m biased. Yes, that’s right, I already like The Decemberists, so when I tell you that this is a good great album, you’re going to be wondering “Yes, but am I, Random Internet Surfer, going to enjoy it?” Well RIS, I’ve a few questions for you:

• Do you enjoy the vamping and slow crescendos typically associated with Prog Rock, and would it be alright with you if said vamping and crescendos were worked into the latest Decemberists compositions?
• Would you be alright if Colin and Chris spent more time with electric guitars, ever so slightly edging toward a “heavier” sound?
• Do you really like organs?
• How about 11 minute songs (yes, plural; there are two), not quite playlist fodder but wondrous epics in the spirit of The Tain, a previous Decemberists effort?
• Will you allow Meloy a misstep or two, namely the instrumental intro to “The Island” and the drudging, plodding “When The War Came,” both of which lack the hooks and/or tension that most of Meloy’s work gleams with?

Well, then I guess you’ve answered your own question. Personally, it took me a few listens to get used to a less-folky Decemberists sound, but, honestly, they’ve moved closer toward my personal taste. “The Perfect Crime #2″ might just be my favorite song of 2006, if not of the decade or, dare I say, ever. Even if you’d rather listen to Castaways and Cutouts, there’s plenty here for you, for when I say less-folky I do not mean to imply that The Crane Wife is lacking in the indie-folk that The Decemberists have made their claim to fame perfecting, merely that Colin is branching into new territories. Plus, you get to hear them do a round in the closing “Sons and Daughters.” And if any band ever should’ve recorded a round by now, this is that band.

1. The Crane Wife 3
2. The Island - Come & See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel The Drowning
3. Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
4. O Valencia!
5. The Perfect Crime #2
6. When The War Came
7. Shankhill Butchers
8. Summersong
9. The Crane Wife 1 and 2
10. Sons and Daughters

– Quinton

This 4-beetsreview was posted on October 9th, 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.