[Capitol, 2011]
I didn't really like the Decemberists' last album. Having written a few top quality albums of americana-y English-leaning indie folk, they suddenly took a misguided turn for prog. They'd always been pretty theatrical, but 2009's 'The Hazards Of Love' took it to a new level. Now they've abandoned that path, thankfully, going back towards their roots and making an album with Peter Buck of REM fame that is fairly clearly heavily influenced by the college rock progenitors. I'm not sure whether the album's title is meant to be an overt Smiths reference or not, but this is definitely the most 80s-sounding album in the band's ouevre. The sprawling epics are gone, replaced by shorter, tauter tracks. The best song on the album, 'Calamity Song', sounds pretty much exactly like an amalgamation of the first 5 tracks of 'Reckoning'. This is in no way a bad thing though, and indeed makes for one of the best songs of 2011 I've heard so far. 'Rox In The Box' is also a really good song, while being a fairly unadventurous sing-a-long folk ballad. These songs set the pattern for the whole record. Everything here is fairly obvious, but some of the melodies and instrumentations are absolutely gorgeous.
The descriptive, intellectual (and to be honest, pretentious) lyrics that previously defined the band's output are mostly gone, with only the odd relapse ('And the Panamanian child stands at the Dowager Empress' side' - what?). Indeed, much of what made the band unique in the current American scene has been abandoned. It is definitely a lot less artistic than their early albums, and could really have been made by any one of a number of bands. I never thought I'd say that about a Decemberists album. They've made what is a really good, enjoyable rock record, but lost something along the way.
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