The Decemberists

I adore about half of Castaways, the other half I don't think is as strong. Definitely a contender for future greatness though.

I agree with you there. The good songs are really great especially "Architect," and the bad songs are only ok, like the gimmick getting old, or just pretentious. The good songs don't really rely on thee olde civil war lyrics they're just strong. The instrumentation is unique and smart, and when the lyrics hit, they're really clever and layered. Overall, it's a record that I keep playing over and over despite its minor weaknesses, and as zaxxon25 mentions, great for listening to at work.

I think there's some similarity between Meloy's singing and Mangum's. And there's a similar "bizarre stories of even more bizarre people" quality to the lyrics. In Aeroplane Mangum jumps from idea to idea almost at random within songs, but ties together the album as a whole by returning to those same ideas until they seem resonant and meaningful. With Meloy, things are a little more compartmentalized -- each song stays focused a bit more, but there's not much of a thread running from one song to the next. (Or I've missed it.)

I think NMH's Aeroplane is more of a "masterpiece" but it's one of those records I can't listen to often because of its intensity. The Decemberists are frankly "lightweight" in comparisons, but I have more time for that in my day-to-day life.

I saw the Decemberists in concert earlier this year, and they closed with a nice song "I was meant for the stage" but for the most part, the show was like a NMH tribute hour.

Ditto. That's the one that hooked me.

"tell your dwawtaahs due nawt walk the streets alone tonight"

I brought home Her Majesty to listen to for the next few days while I'm in Providence. I listened to it twice on the way here. The standouts are: "Red Right Ankle" / "The Bachelor & The Bride" / "The Soldiering Life."

I've only heard chance snippets of Castaways & Cut Outs, though my roommate owns it; I ought to just burn it, but I'm anal about things like that. Anyway... I guess, the album is hit & miss, none of it is awful, but only a few songs are really great. The best song on the album is "Red Right Ankle"--vaguely heartbreaking and very catchy. Most people I know, upon hearing it the first time, try to sing along to the second verse, assuming the words are the same. Silly people.

Meh.

Songs are overwritten, voice is a bit irritating, musicians are tight, stage antics are occasionally funny but feel forced, overall feeling is too precious. Norfolk and Western were less memorable but felt more honest.

http://www.stereogum.com/decemberists.mp3

It's the Decemberists covering Bjork's Human Behaviour. It's quite good.

sounded like some deep REM worship.

well, Peter Buck does play guitar on "Calamity" (which sounds EXACTLY like an early R.E.M. tune when he isn't singing) and a couple other tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt5ghXdq6Z0

This sounds like it will be a lot less hateful than their previous records.

which one's the song about rape, then

I know the legions of haters here won't be swayed by anything I say about this, but stepping back from the ridiculously overblown concepts and literary aspirations has really done wonders for this band. This is a pretty rustic, laid-back album. All the time spent listening to R.E.M. and recording in a barn seems to help too. I think I really like this.

vocals seemed a lot less annoying as well. some of it (probably due to peter buck's presence) has a kinda robyn hitchcock/egyptians vibe.

I usually live and let live with music I don't like but I used to absolutely hate this band's guts - look at the track titles on Picaresque for pete's sake - and looking back it's because hidden beneath those "ridiculously overblown concepts and literary aspirations" was a group I kind of liked. I don't have a problem with Meloy's vocals and the backing tracks have always been interesting. Now that they are singing about things that aren't maddeningly stupid you can listen closely without wanting to throw the iPod across the room. Very very pleasantly surprised by the new album.

Meloy still throws in a couple of ten-dollar words here and there and his delivery is SO predictable (for example, when I saw "Dear Avery" as a title, I accurately predicted that the first bit would be "Dear Ave-A-ree" in Meloy's pained over-pronunciation), but this is a great turn for the band.

Yay? From their promo person:

The Decemberists have earned the first-ever #1 chart position of their career with the impressive first-week showing of their widely acclaimed new album The King Is Dead, which was released by EMI’s Capitol Records on January 18. The album scanned 93,567 units in the U.S. in its debut week, landing it at the top of the Billboard Top 200 chart, and has also given the band their highest career chart position in territories all over the world.

Etc. etc.

for example, when I saw "Dear Avery" as a title, I accurately predicted that the first bit would be "Dear Ave-A-ree" in Meloy's pained over-pronunciation

oh shit

This album is almost comically derivative but I quite like the couple of songs that sound like Reckoning-era REM. The one that sounds like Breakfast At Tiffany's less so.

Also some of the songs feel like academic excercises at making folk music - that one with the sea shanty bit at the end particularly - but their production choices betray how little feeling they actually have for the music, those ridiculous big drums and acoustic guitars turned up as loud as possible in the mix.

according to p4k it just topped the u.s. billboard at #1. fucking insane!

*cough* My post just an hour ago...?

did they sell more records than Cake, though

They didn't sell any cake at all iirc

I mean they're a band not a bake sale ¯\(°_o)/¯

really? meloy makes incredibly detailed cakes with miniature reenactments of the war 1812 on them. really delicious stuff.

#24 with a bullet here, kind of surprised their profile is even that big in the UK.

http://i.imgur.com/QIFQ4.png

*cough* My post just 3 hours ago...?

I'm kind of shocked that they sold so many copies right out the gate. Who knew?

xp that awful image had to be posted

There's a taking sides thread to be made here:

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2011/01/11/alg_decemberists_band.jpg

http://www.perrific.com/cds/covers/gordon.jpg

I guess I am a little surprised at this hitting #1. Part of me says, "well, Arcade Fire and Death Cab both debuted at #1 within the last couple of years" -- but the Decemberists feel just a bit more niche, and also Hazards of Love (also on Capitol) bowed at #14 just two years ago. It's not like their profile has dramatically increased since then, has it?

eh. early in the year, not many big releases, a smaller or indie album can sneak-in more easily at no. 1.

i like this band fine, btw. just sayin'.

I guess the parallel is Vampire Weekend's #1 from exactly a year ago.

This album kind of blows, btw.

I mean, OK, it's super-competent and everything, just sort of plain and dull. I've never been a huge fan of the band, but there were usually at least a couple of songs on each album that I could get excited about.

"Why We Fight" isn't bad. [/livebloggin']

hipster runoff breaks down why the decemberists hit #1
http://cdn.hipsterrunoff.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/800/20110128-tfcn6m9gymtcbrjbc5eb2aciwg_0.jpg

"Down By the Water" really reminds me of a Gin Blossoms song when it first starts up, then again with the harmonica. "Follow You Down" maybe?

Just want to say that The King Is Dead is awesome! There's no mystery as why it charted so high other than I suppose people thought The Decemberists were more under the radar than they really are? They fit a lot of grooves - indie, americana, folk rock, alt country, twee, victorian nostalgia... I imagine their fanbase is pretty wide and varied.

IMO its the first great album of 2011. I didn't like the Hazards of Love but have much <3 for Crane Wife and Picaresque. This is a step in a different direction, way more folk and country influence than the ragtimey victorian stuff, but I like it all. Fuck the haters.

I really feel nothing for this band in this slightest but I will say this, cool move:

http://yfrog.com/kjsuqvj

Context?

I think its to celebrate the upcoming season of Curb Your Enthusiasm

Bandmember Jenny was diagnosed with cancer and is going through chemo -- thus her being bald and thus them all shaving their heads in solidarity.

So the new EP is pretty much uniformly better than anything on the recent full-length. Gone are the country-tinged R.E.M. aping tracks, back to the more folksy and proggy stuff that I prefer. Their Dead cover isn't half bad.

just learned that this band has a song called 'the chimbley sweep'

and thus that i've wasted 17 years by failing to concentrate my hatred upon them

they're a great band with a great catalog (although after 10 top-class years, the decline seems to have set in on the last two albums)

man, the new single is bleak. they sound 100% out of ideas, going through motions, lifeless, etc.

maybe the album will be better, but i'm not hopeful.

Yeah, I'd agree with that, but also your previous post from three years ago, the last two albums weren't very exciting either. Would love a return to like The Crane Wife, but I'm not holding out much hope for that.

Oh totally. Although each of those had a handful of good songs, I'd say, and this one seems worse than just about anything on either one. I can't believe it's the first single.

I didn't expand on this last night when I posted, but: This band feels like an obligation at this point - come together every five years, record the latest batch of songs, go on tour, bank some dough, then go off and do what you really want to be doing (for Colin) / do whatever pays the bills (for the rest of them) for another five.

You won't find a bigger defender of their first decade than me. Everything through King Is Dead is brilliant, imo. But this one sounds like someone told AI to produce a Colin Meloy song.

At least they're bringing Ratboys with them on tour this summer.

Wow, you're right. I used to adore this band when I was just getting into that Pitchfork/indie scene, just after their first LP. Saw them about five times between Her Majesty and Crane Wife, even though this required an hour and a half drive to a college town. The first time was at a venue with a stage small enough that they couldn't leave without disassembling their gear, so they just sat down for ten minutes before the encore and told us to occupy ourselves. I remember downloading mp3s of the live Picaresque tracks before they were recorded and tabbing them out for posting on their forum. I drifted away when it seemed like their quirkiness was being smoothed out, and just because my passion moved on, as it does.

I haven't revisited those LPs since; I'm wary that I'll find it all too cutesy-cringey now. That'd I'd feel faintly embarrassed, like when I find my amateurish attempts at music blogging from back then, or old LiveJournal entries. I'd rather keep the memories as they are. Still, I'm running through "Leslie Anne Levine" in my mind and it still sounds pretty/haunting.

Yeah, I gave "Burial Ground" another listen last night and alpine 100% otm with it sounding like Colin Meloy AI.

My wife and I saw them several times in their early days, when they were a somewhat niche act in small clubs.

I still like the first several records, but haven't kept up and probably won't.

Man, I love "Burial Ground"! Surprised to see so much dumping on it here, it's a total earworm. Basically Decemberists + Shins in a good way (which I wouldn't have predicted at this point). I'm not a huge Decemberists fan, I liked some of their early albums but not super attached to them. I just think this scans as like a good lost Paisley Underground track.

Haven't played this yet, but slightly encouraged by them going all epic again... new 19-minute song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nhLuHWcTdo

Never been a fan of these guys but I'm reading Wildwood with my kid, and it's unsurprisingly excellent.