I have become less and less excited about new Decemberists since I had the realisation that I am never ever ever going to see them live.
No. I don't.
However the Decemberists are not exactly known for touring outside North America very extensively and the odds of seeing them in Australia are slim to fucking nil.
No. I don't.
However the Decemberists are not exactly known for touring outside North America very extensively and the odds of seeing them in Australia are slim to fucking nil.
how could you guys not have been sure about the "rock opera" concept? sounded great even before I heard the Rake's Song
Quote from: Warren EllisThe new Decemberists is fine if you like the Decemberists. If you are, however, a human, then it still sounds like a Jethro Tull tribute band without the flute.
Oh snap
Well from what I can tell the Rake may be the shape shifting villain who kidnaps Margaret. Then he whisks her away and the Queen sees him. I suppose the Queen saved him as a child and he is indebted to her, but he wants one night to himself (this is where The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid comes in) then from what I heard she is happy to let him have his freedom for one night for taking Margaret away from William. Then she helps them cross the river. The rest has really already been told. I guess it won't make much sense until we get the full lyrics.
I love The Decemberists but i really didn't like this album.
A review in today's Guardian gave it 5/5 stars and said it was the most exciting album he'd heard for twenty years...
A review in today's Guardian gave it 5/5 stars and said it was the most exciting album he'd heard for twenty years...
There is a certain kind of music fan who will read the above with a solemn expression: what we have on our hands here, gentlemen, is a potentially fatal outbreak of Jethro Tull, and we can only pray, for humanity's sake, that the emergency services act swiftly to contain it. But there are things here that could convince the most prog-phobic listener. Meloy has long been acclaimed as an original and brilliant writer, and there's ample evidence of both his idiosyncratic lyrical eye (at one point it rests on a newborn baby's "crinkled little fingers") and ability to come up with melodies that sound as though they might have existed for centuries. The Hazards of Love 2, Annan Water and Isn't It a Lovely Night? are utterly glorious, while The Rakes' Song is that rarest of things, a comical rock track about infanticide.
Oddly, it's not really prog that's the problem with The Hazards of Love so much as another genre born in the late 60s. Meloy is clearly fascinated with the way British hard rock intersected with folk. It's an interesting point - you could argue that Fairport Convention and Black Sabbath were both aspects of rock's post-psychedelic back-to-basics impulse - but the influence of nascent heavy metal on The Hazards of Love proves to be ruinous. It's fair to say that you only have to look at a photograph of the Decemberists to know that this is a band unlikely to be much cop at swaggering cock-rock, in much the same way that you only have to look at a photo of Led Zeppelin in their bare-chested, squeeze-my-lemon-baby pomp to know that wry, bookish indiepop probably wasn't their forte.
And so it proves. The attempts at tumescent blues-rock on Repaid and The Queen's Rebuke dangle flaccid, while of all the album's recurring musical motifs, the one that grates is a lumbering, sludgy metal riff. There's something weedy and unconvincing about it, a cardboard cutout of Black Sabbath's claustrophobic angst. They might have got away with it, had the metal nods been presented with a knowing smile, but as with everything else on The Hazards of Love, the Decemberists play it dead straight.
Really? A review in Friday's Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/mar/20/decemberists-review-hazards-of-love) gave it 3/5.
Hm, I just listened through it once, so this opinion is not really firm yet, but still. I thought it wasn't that good. Just like Crane Wife had only two really good tracks (Crane Wife 3 and Sons & Daughters) this is even worse it seems. I want more "July, July!", "Legionnaire's Lament" and "Clementine" awesomeness. Castaway and Cutouts was a truly great album. If this is not interrupting the topic too much - any suggestions on artists similar to that album? I'm not really in this scene and only know very few bands like this, for example The Shins and would appreciate any recommendations. :)