The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

Songs. Sometimes they're great. Sometimes they're terrible. Sometimes they're meh. And sometimes, they get stuck in your head. I'm not talking McDonalds jingle stuck in your head. I'm talking about a band packing up and keeping residence in your head like it's a bed and breakfast, injecting their song into your head with every passing second until it's completely taken over your life to the point of public meltdowns. Well, ladies and gentleman, it's happened. "Down By The Water" by The Decemberists. It's got me in a folk trance. I've caught myself singing it in public. I listen to it every chance I get. I have dreams of Chris Farley singing it to me by my bed side. This song is resounding with me more than any song I've heard before. Therefore, on a quest to remove the song, I bought the album and listened to it three times straight. Impressively, the album's not a one and done; far from it actually. The Decemberists have shaken their epic concept album attachment to make not a long unfurling folk story, but a collection of different shades of folk rock. In broadening their horizons, Colin Meloy's troupe of folksters let their alternative country talent shine with their studio album The King Is Dead.

Not that The Crane Wife and Hazards of Love aren't good albums. Not at all. They are both ambitious and beautiful in places, but they tended to steer towards the darker spectrum of folk, with songs running seven and eight minutes long, and while The King Is Dead has its introspective moments, the real difference in the new album is the energy. The King Is Dead is filled with fun down to earth tunes that just feel right. The album's opener, "Don't Carry It All" sounds likes a barn-stomping affair; all of the family singing along. A perfect drum part and the occasional fiddle-here mandolin-there fits perfectly. "So raise your glass to turnings of the season/ And watch it as it arcs towards the sun/ And you must bear your neighbors burden within reason/ And your labors will be born when all is done." Lyrical creativity has never been a problem for Colin Meloy. In fact, a lot of his music begs listeners to have their dictionary open, looking up the words that Shakespeare would have been inspired by, a feat making the imagery all the more poignant. You know, like Miley Cyrus. But who, in this day and age, has time to look up words in an old dusty book. I went to high school with kids that didn't know what a dictionary was. Therefore, I've prepared a nice little Idiot's Guide to The Decemberists The King Is Dead; how to understand Colin Meloy.

plinth-pedestal: an architectural support or base (as for a column or statue)

trillium-any liliaceous plant of the genus Trillium having a whorl of three leaves at the top of the stem with a single three-petaled flower

bonhomie-affability: a disposition to be friendly and approachable (easy to talk to)

dowager- widow holding property received from her deceased husband

loam-a rich soil consisting of a mixture of sand and clay and decaying organic materials

strata-Layers (the plural of stratum); in archaeology this term generally refers to layers of earth.

anon-at another time; "ever and anon"

gabardine-a firm durable fabric with a twill weave

lynchpin-anchor: a central cohesive source of support and stability; "faith is his anchor"

culvert-a transverse and totally enclosed drain under a road or railway

reverie-absentminded dreaming while awake

panoply-a complete and impressive array

avarice-extreme greed for material wealth

I haven't seen vocabulary like that since The Black Eyed Peas classic, Elephunk.

The King Is Dead also features a panoply of guest artists. R.E.M.'s Peter Buck appears quite a bit, along with Dave Rawlings Machine's Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings Himself. However, these are in no way the only influences apparent on the album. Bits of Tom Petty show up every few hooks or so. Both "January Hymn" and "June Hymn" have traces of Avett Brothers in in their blood. "Down By The Water" sounds like it could be The Boss himself. Even the rallying cry "This Is Why We Fight", one of the weaker songs on the album, reminds me of Muse's epic rocker "Knights Of Cydonia" every time I hear the entrance, and while some might condemn The Decemberists for losing their typical sound and picking up others, the musical execution and emotionally enthralling songwriting makes it all alright.

All in all, The King Is Dead is a great album, mainly because that's all it's trying to be. You can hear the work put into the songs. With all of the help from outside sources, the album has a very communal sound, stretching the boundaries this band had set before. Here's too hoping there's more like it to come.