The Decemberists
The King Is Dead
Everyone I have spoken to about The King Is Dead has hated it. Words like ‘twangy’ and ‘twee’ have been used a lot. A number of people have pointed out how poorly the album fares when it’s compared to 2009’s superb The Hazards Of Love (which came 2nd on my list that year, and could easily have pinched top spot). Well, as is evident from a drop of 16 places, I don’t like The King Is Dead as much as The Hazards Of Love either. But, then, it’s a very different beast, and is almost impossible to judge on the same criteria. Gone are the prog-folk procrastinations, and in their place are a collection of sweet simple country-folk songs, which are – yes – rather twangy and twee, but are also well crafted and extremely catchy. The closet comparison from recent years for me would probably be Ben Kweller’s Changing Horses: all shamelessly poppy and pretty, without a care as to cool. There are still flashes of the darker sound present on The Crane Wife or The Hazards Of Love – ‘This is Why We Fight’ being a good example – but overall this is a much sunnier record than previous Decemberists albums. It’s almost as if the band burnt themselves out on complex miserablist fables and went for country love songs instead, as some form of catharsis. Perhaps not as strong as much of their previous output and not really to my usual taste, but still well worthy of a place on the list – which says a lot about how good The Decemberists are. I like it even if nobody else does…
The King Is Dead
Everyone I have spoken to about The King Is Dead has hated it. Words like ‘twangy’ and ‘twee’ have been used a lot. A number of people have pointed out how poorly the album fares when it’s compared to 2009’s superb The Hazards Of Love (which came 2nd on my list that year, and could easily have pinched top spot). Well, as is evident from a drop of 16 places, I don’t like The King Is Dead as much as The Hazards Of Love either. But, then, it’s a very different beast, and is almost impossible to judge on the same criteria. Gone are the prog-folk procrastinations, and in their place are a collection of sweet simple country-folk songs, which are – yes – rather twangy and twee, but are also well crafted and extremely catchy. The closet comparison from recent years for me would probably be Ben Kweller’s Changing Horses: all shamelessly poppy and pretty, without a care as to cool. There are still flashes of the darker sound present on The Crane Wife or The Hazards Of Love – ‘This is Why We Fight’ being a good example – but overall this is a much sunnier record than previous Decemberists albums. It’s almost as if the band burnt themselves out on complex miserablist fables and went for country love songs instead, as some form of catharsis. Perhaps not as strong as much of their previous output and not really to my usual taste, but still well worthy of a place on the list – which says a lot about how good The Decemberists are. I like it even if nobody else does…
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