The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
Rating
RIYL
Death Cab for CutieThe Who
Pink Floyd
The Dear Hunter
Release Date
03/24/2009
Label
Capitol RecordsTracklist
1 Prelude 3:042 The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone) 4:19
3 A Bower Scene 2:09
4 Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga) 4:07
5 The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All) 4:26
6 The Queen's Approach 0:29
7 Isn't It a Lovely Night? 3:39
8 The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid 6:27
9 An Interlude 1:40
10 The Rake's Song 3:16
11 The Abduction of Margaret 2:07
12 The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing 3:56
13 Annan Water 5:12
14 Margaret in Captivity 3:08
15 The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!) 3:22
16 The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise) 1:31
17 The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) 5:57
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The transition from The Decemberists' 2005 release, Picaresque, to their following 2006 major label début, The Crane Wife, was quite a drastic change, one that had a lot of hipsters sweating in their skinnies. The indie kids need not have worried because the group delivered their greatest and most grandiose release yet: it was if somebody had handed band-leader Colin Meloy some Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull records along with an electric guitar, because what came out was a fantastic folk concept record steeped in 70's prog rock and experimentation.
The Hazards of Love, the band's fifth record, finds Meloy again dusting off his electric guitar but also adding a few more records to his collection. The Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull comparisons are still wonderfully apparent, but we now find Meloy has been listing to even more 70's prog rock concept albums as he's written, directed, and orchestrated yet another piece of musical theatre, a rock opera that is not only influenced by but rivals some of the era's greatest conceptual records from The Who to Genesis.
Telling the tale of a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William; a forest queen; and a cold-blooded, lascivious rake, the record really is a melange of sounds and genres reflecting the characters and situations in the story. From the accordion sing-song in “Isn’t It a Lovely Night?” to the booming thunder of rockers such as “The Queen’s Rebuke / The Crossing” the album covers an expansive ground.
The only track that sounds anything like their earlier work is the first song after the introductory instrumental (“Prelude”), “The Hazards Of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle The Thistles Undone)” which is a more straight-forward folk ditty, but after that, we're immediately treated to “A Bower Scene” which features crunching metal riffs (yeah, I said metal) and is peppered with warbling Hammond organ and dashes of hammered dulcimer. Stretching the band's sound even further, both “The Wanting Comes In Waves / Repaid” & “The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing” feature the fantastically powerful vocals of My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden, but they boast even more guitar chugging and also include some Jimmy Hendrix-esque psychedelic chords.
A highlight of The Decemberists - and arguably one of their earlier selling points - are the lyrics of Colin Meloy. He yet again manages to weave a vivid literary tapestry of almost Dickensian diction into this prog rock masterpiece and yet still somehow manages to avoid sounding massively pretentious, and instead is actually easily understandable and greatly enjoyable. You can see why Stephen Colbert described the band as "hyper-literate prog rock” as on “Isn't It A Lovely Night” Meloy is joined by the angelic tones of Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark as they duet over such charming lines as, “Isn’t it a lovely night? / And so alive with fireflies providing us their holy light / And here we made a bed of boughs / And thistledown to lay us down up the dewy ground,” and, “Wasn’t it a lovely breeze / That swept the leaves of arbor eaves / And bent to brush our blushing knees?”
The Hazards of Love is a natural progression for the band and is one they had always hinted at producing ever since 2005 with their eighteen and a half minute EP, The Tain. Long gone are the sea shanties about shipwrecks and being swallowed by whales, and instead we're now treated to a wonderfully composed album chock-full of classic prog rock and experimentation bound together by a wonderful concept, and this record is most certainly a prog rock conceptual album done to perfection. Throughout the record melodies, recurring riffs, and ideas span the album and echo across different songs. For instance “The Abduction of Margaret” mirrors “A Bower Scene” and there's even a nod to Pink Floyd on "The Hazards Of Love 3 (Revenge!)" with its Floyd-esque children's choir.
You have to admire tenacity of Meloy and his band for not sticking to their hipster-safe quirky folk rock, and by delving into other genres, there's a little bit here for everyone, from the folksy ballads to the extravagant crunching psychedelic rockers, The Hazards of Love is the best hour of music to be released, so far, this year.
--Rich Taylor
Comments
ARIZONA
your album/band references have me very intrigued...
Good review, but I enjoy their older stuff much more than this album.
Spokane, Washington
this is a departure from their previous stuff, but equally as listenable in my opinion. good review!
Current Listenings:
7 Horns 7 Eyes - "Throes of Absolution"
Horse Feathers - "Cynic's New Year"
Andrew Bird - "Break It Yourself"
Sigur Ros - "Valtari"
Rocky Votolato - "Television of Saints"
Janus - "Nox Aeris"
Blues Traveler - "25"
VT
Yea, not even close. I tried listening to this album three times from front to back (without comparing it to their older stuff) and it just did not click. Nothing really memorable or noteworthy here, I thought.
My Top Songs of '09
The Appleseed Cast//as the little things go
Caspian//sycamore
Sunwrae//Chinook Winds
Dredg//down to the seller
If These Trees Could Talk//the sun is in the north
From Monument to Masses//an ounce of prevention
Straylight Run//i'm through with the past
LpShinobi's Post-Rock and Shoegazing Recommendation, via YouTube
Lpshinobi's Post-Rock Band, New Song Posted
NJ
its more like a longer version of the Tain i feel. I like it a lot but its basically one long 40+ minute song
Go FLYERS Go
Agree with lazerwolf... it's like a glorified version of Tain. I think it's a great album to listen to in itself, but it's not one you can very readily pick a song off to stick on your latest ______-mix cd (be it sleeping, driving, gaming, etc). It really has to be self contained to stand as strongly as it does.
"These are our lives, but did they ever even matter - are we worth remembering?"
- "Tip The Scales"
Rise Against
Columbus, Ohio
BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR. PERIOD.
Recommending: Anberlin, Interpol, Chamberlain, House of Heroes
Boston, MA
I just got done listening to this and I can't help but be disappointed. It's by no means a bad album but it just doesn't get me excited like their older material. I know it's supposed to be one big song and a rock opera type thing but still nothing really stands out besides one or two songs. Hopefully, I'll warm up to it more.
Stereo Typing
Tweet at me, bro
Was disappointing with this album in regards to the fact that I didn't hear that spark I used to in their older material. Still pretty good.
San Jose, CA
Finally heard this. Fantastic album.
last.fm/user/thetsaiguy