The Decemberists - The King Is Dead on CD

Description

The last time we heard from The Decemberists, on 2009’s The Hazards of Love, they were lost in the dense forest of a prog-inflected, 17-track experimental concept album. A mythic folk-rock opera of vaudevillian villains, fairies and doomed earthly lovers that was inspired by Anne Briggs’ 1963 a cappella folk EP, it saw the band’s smart, savvy songwriting overdressed as gothic folly. Making it "took a lot out of" singer Colin Meloy – and listening to it, many fans felt the same way. Fortunately, rather than releasing an even more grandiose, darkly dramatic follow-up, they’ve chipped off the embellishments, reined in the pomp and walked towards the light. The bookish Portland five-piece started life as indie-mongers with a penchant for English folk, and their sixth album recaptures their youth, only now they’ve shifted their allegiance back over the pond. Despite, bizarrely, being titled like a riposte to The Smiths, The King Is Dead – which was recorded in a remote barn for maximum country flavour – is their Americana record, where the sun dapples the water and you can’t move but hit your Stetson on a twanging acoustic guitar. Or, in this case, on an authenticity-boosting guest musician – roots luminary Gillian Welch lends her vocals to several tracks, and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck strums on three. But even without their help, this album would have been convincing. It is, simply, a thing of beauty, its hook quotient the highest of The Decemberists’ discography. The scaled-down (for them – these things are relative) arrangements ebb and flow, as Neil Young-ian harmonica and mandolin anthems (Don’t Carry It All) and sing-along gypsy stomps (Rox in the Box) are hushed by delicate, gorgeously melodic meditations with simple guitar accompaniment (January Hymn). The lyrics, appropriately, aren’t as abstruse as usual, though they’ll still keep sales of the OED healthy. The only downside – apart from the lumbering plodder Rise to Me, which has a hay-chewing instrumental – is that some of Meloy’s acknowledged inspiration arrives too directly from its source. After listening to Reckoning, he set out to write an homage to R.E.M. and seems to have succeeded a little too well. Still, at least Buck isn’t likely to sue. Im Verlauf ihrer Karriere verfolgt jede gute Band einen Stil, eine bestimmte Idee kreativen Schaffens so lang, bis sich ihre ganz eigene und unverwechselbare Handschrift entwickelt hat. Einmal auf diesem Level angelangt, lsst sich der Bandsound schlielich wunderbar in alle mglichen Richtungen weiterspinnen, ohne dass das charakteristische Merkmal der eigenen Musik noch verloren gehen knnte. So weit die Theorie. Mit ihrem sechsten Album, „The King Is Dead“, erbringen die Decemberists nun den klaren Beweis. Basierte ihr letztes Album „The Hazards Of Love“ noch auf der Tradition alter englischer Folk Tunes, sind es bei „The King Is Dead“ ganz neue Eindrcke, die die Songs der Band prgen. Vor allem sein Umzug in die eher lndliche Gegend im Umland von Portland inspirierte Snger Colin Meloy dazu, diesmal eine Sammlung spartanischer und vom amerikanischen Country beeinflusster Stcke zu schreiben. Die meist nur akustisch instrumentierten und einfach gehaltenen Arrangements, die im deutlichen Gegensatz zu den ppig ausgestalteten Strukturen ihrer frheren Arbeiten stehen, fallen dabei genauso exzellent aus, wie man es von der fnfkpfigen Band gewohnt ist. Songs wie „All Arise!“ oder „Rise To Me“ erinnern mit ihren wehmtigen Pedal-Steel-Gitarren nicht selten an die schlichten Kompositionen von Neil Young’s Klassiker „Harvest“. Zum Gelingen trugen brigens auch Gste wie Sngerin Gillian Welch und Peter Buck bei. Whrend die aus dem Coen-Epos „O Brother, Where Art Thou“ bekannte Fluss-Sirene bei gleich sieben Stcken den weiblichen Counterpart am Mikro gibt, steuert die R.E.M.-Legende sein Talent als Saitenknstler bei, so etwa be

TRACKS

Don't Carry It All 4.17
Calamity Song 3.50
Rise to Me 4.59
Rox in the Box 3.10
January Hymn 3.13
Down By the Water 3.42
All Arise! 3.09
June Hymn 3.58
This Is Why We Fight 5.30
Dear Avery 4.52