Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
|
My friend (and Downer artist) Kyle Hunter got me into the new album by The Decemberists. I'd previously bought one of their CDs, listened to it twice, and filed it away forever without even ripping it to MP3.
This one is something different. Here's how allmusic.com describes it:
"A 17-song suite (think one continuous song with track ID's peppered throughout for sanity's sake) about a girl named Margaret, shapeshifters, forest queens, and fairytale treachery, Hazards of Love is ambitious, pretentious, obtuse, often impenetrable, and altogether pretty great."
Surely some of you have heard this record.
Discuss.
|
Director of Narrative
|
It's good stuff.
I've bought a number of Decemberists records in the past and I really enjoyed Colin Meloy's lyrics and storytelling. Granted, not all of the songs on all the records, but The Mariner's Revenge Song from Picaresque is particularly wonderful as are a number of songs (Yankee Bayonet, O Valencia!, Shankill Butchers and Sons and Daughters) from The Crane Wife.
I got The Hazards of Love for my lady, as she requested it as soon as she knew if was released. She listened to it a number of times in a row that first week and then here and there afterwords. I picked it up in my shuffle, but it didn't really work.
The record is certainly meant to be played as a continuous story. And I have to admit a love for thematic records. I love when an artist ties a record up in a nice package.
I stumbled upon The Crane Wife and was hooked. I have been waiting for something new.
I like the Hazards of Love a lot, but it suffers from the concept album format: it's not too often that I want to listen to a record all the way through and while some work fine by themselves ("The Rake's Song" for instance) most of them need to build on the one before. It also threw me for a loop that Meloy sings two characters: had to check the liner notes.
I'm going to see them at Radio City Music Hall next month, which will be kind of strange.
Ah, the Hazards of Love. Brilliant, brilliant album. But yes, sometimes hard to swallow all in one sitting. The Rake's Song (the current radio track) is a tasty little bit of old-school misanthropic (electric) folk music. My wife has always hated my taste in British folk-rock ballads (like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and Pentangle) because they are so grim. She refers to it as "murder ballads" and wants nothing to do with it, but she actually really digs the Hazards of Love. Foot in the door!
A random word of advice: don't ever check out any music videos or concert videos of the Decemberists. Not that they are not good live, because they are superb. It is simply that getting a look at the real-life Colin Meloy was very dissappointing. I had this picture in my head of the narrator of these tunes: a tall, gaunt, emaciated figure, pale as a ghost, wearing a black undertaker's coat and an old-fashioned vaudeville hat. He had a detached air and an awkward, otherworldly vibe about him, stalking about a poorly-lit room filled with dusty curios and painting whose eyes seem to follow you as you move. In other words, a grim and creepy dude. Turns out, he's actually just some alt-rocker schlub, utterly unimpressive and incongruous with his image. Of course, I built up this idea of the narrator in my head from listening to the Mariner's Revenge Song about twenty times (the only Decemberists song I knew for a very long, which someone stuck on a mix-disc for me) so take that for what it is.
|
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
|
It's interesting that your wife glommed onto the murder ballad aspect of 70s acid folk. For me it's the other way around. Most of the songs seem to be about pregnant women. That's definitely true of The Hazards of Love, and it's ESPECIALLY true of my very favorite record in this genre, the Wicker Man Soundtrack.
For fans of this record, I suggest:
The Wicker Man Soundtrack
Gather in the Mushrooms
Early Morning Hush
Well, she gets stuck on the fact that my folk music runs toward the violent because that's my favorite stuff, and the particular songs I play probably skew her opinion ("Cruel Sister" by Pentangle, for example, is a beautiful song, but DEPRESSING AS HELL). This extends to other aspects of our shared experience as well; she can't stand some of my favorite TV shows, like "Brutalstar Galactica".
The one song I got her to actually like was "Tam Lin" (Fairport's version) by insisting she actually LISTEN to the lyrics, since it is quite a good story. And do you know what that song's about? A pregnant woman. (Coincidentially, my wife was also pregnant at the time. With twins.) You may onto something there...
And thanks for the recommendations, btw. Will check them out as soon as I am able!
Just saw them live at Radio City Music Hall.
F#++ING BAD ASS. Played The Hazards of Love in its entirety without pause, then they went into older material. It was awesome. I have never seen a bad concert from them, but this one was something to remember.
Erik, how is Kyle Hunter doing? We have not seen him around for a while. I hope that things are going well for him!
I have to say, I am not feeling Hazards as much as their older stuff. Maybe it went too far afield for me.
Gah! Hazards is the 4e of Decemberist!