Item number two on the list of much-anticipated records released in October: the Decemberists are back with their fourth record in four years. The Crane Wife continues their travels away from pretty historical-folk dream-pop and toward historical-folk prog-rock.
It’s a tough album for me, because (as I’ve said in the past), I fell and fell hard for the Decemberists when I first saw them on Valentine’s Day 2003. I immediately bought Castaways and Cutouts, and I still might consider that to be my favorite album of the 21st century. But, as is often the case, what started as a perfect unity has split apart on subsequent albums. Colin Meloy and company are exploring new terrain. And while I still love his wordplay, their melodies, and the general atmosphere, nothing they’ve done since has produced the same magnetic attraction.
That said, they continue to receive praise and positive reviews from a wide range of people, they seem to be enjoying themselves just fine, and with this their first major label release, we can only hope they’re getting some decent compensation for many years of hard work.
I won’t go into too much detail on the record, since you can probably infer pretty easily for yourself what it sounds like. Or, if you want to read some longer reviews, check out Pitchfork, CokemachineGlow, or Good Weather For Airstrikes.
For me, I’ll leave my comments to a few quick points:
First, O Valencia is about as catchy a take on starcrossed lovers as you’ll ever hear. Even more than last year’s “Sixteen Military Wives,” this is the song that could make it big in the mainstream.
Second, bringing in Laura Veirs to sing a duet with Meloy on “Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)” was a brilliant move – the melding of these two beautifully distinct voices on one song is one of the highlights of 2006 in music. Hopefully, it will get more people to check out her solo work.
Third, the two long tracks are a mixed blessing. “The Island…” is well put together and has moments of greatness, but (at least for my tastes) drags on a bit. Or rather (since the second half is much better than the first), takes a long time to really get good. “The Crane Wife,” on the other hand, is brilliant the whole way through, and demonstrates that Meloy is still one of the greatest storytellers and songwriters of our generation. The album opens with The Crane Wife 3, and doesn’t return to Parts 1 and 2 until track 9, which is a little puzzling, but I kind of like the idea that the album works better on repeat, with the rousing “Sons and Daughters” serving as an interlude. And Part 3 is definitely the strongest, so letting it kick off the album makes some sense.
Fourth, the middle of this album is depressingly bad. A number of other folks seem to enjoy “The Perfect Crime 2” but I find it plodding and dull. Taste varies, I guess. The next track, however, doesn’t get the same caveat. There is no excuse for “When the War Came.” It is, by far, my least favorite Decemberists song. Awkward lyrics (“when the war came, the war came HARD”) and a god-awful heavy metal-ish riff that just repeats over and over and over and over until you want to drive a wooden stake through your ear… In short, yuck. And the next two tracks (“Shankill Butchers” and “Summersong”) are sloppily done Decemberists-by-numbers songs, sounding like B-sides or leftovers from an earlier album. Any of these four songs would challenge for worst song on any other Decemberists album.
This is unfortunate because, apart from the mediocre middle, this is an excellent album. Which has led me to decide that I will simply excise the middle, and treat it as a Pink Floyd-esque 6-song, 42 minute record (jumping straight from “O Valencia” to “The Crane Wife 1 and 2”). Without that baggage, this challenges for one of the best records of the year.
Still, to paraphrase my thoughts about Picaresque last year: it shows just how talented this band really is that an album can be one of my favorites of the year and still be a bit of a disappointment.