The Decemberists: The Crane Wife

With the new Decemberists album, The Crane Wife, finally gracing the shelves of record stores nationwide yesterday (almost two months after the leak first hit the internet), I can at last share with you some of the excellence that comprises one of the year’s absolute best releases. Any concerns aroused by the album’s “major label debut” status can be put to rest, as Capitol’s influence can be heard only in the album’s increased production values rather than in any impediment of the band’s established undeniably-indie sound, which was surely the fear of the band’s loyal fanbase. You’ve already heard “Summersong” here before, thanks to Capitol savvily granting Pitchfork the exclusive mp3 last month, which is the album’s most immediate and accessible (i.e. the “most maintream”) track, but even that retains the distinct Meloy feel. Chris Walla, now working with the relative freedom of a major label budget for the second time, does another brilliant job behind the boards here, expanding the already epic scale of the music and taking the band’s sound to new heights.
Electric guitar is introduced to the band’s already vast arsenal of instruments, but this isn’t to say Colin Meloy: Lit-Rock King has become Colin Meloy: Guitar Hero. Rather, it’s used more as a tool of emphasis in a complimentary role, as can be seen on album highlights “The Crane Wife 3″ and “Sons & Daughters”, which bookend the album flawlessly. The electric guitar does take center stage on the album’s biggest wtf moment, the hard-rocking “When The War Came”, which opens with a barrage of electric power chords that wouldn’t be out of place on a hardcore album. Soon enough, Meloy’s distinct vocals come in and things click, and the track ends up working well (really well in fact), but it’s a sound never before heard from the Decemberists. New ground is also broken on “The Perfect Crime 2″ (don’t hold your breath for a “Perfect Crime 1″ though, as you won’t find it on this album), which sees the band at their danciest with a pulsing drumbeat and a jumpy, dancey bassline.
MP3: “When The War Came” - The Decemberists
Elsewhere, the rest of the album sees the band perfecting and expanding the sound found on their three previous releases. Probable first single, “O, Valencia” is one of Meloy’s best works to date, a classic feuding families/forbidden love story with a soaring chorus and addictive refrain. I feel badly sharing more than three cuts off the album, so you’ll have to settle for an excellent-quality solo performance of the song from Colin’s August 2005 solo performance at The Beachcomber. The song’s structure remains identical on the album, though he obviously doesn’t forget the lyrics in the final version and the album sees the introduction of a full band to the track, but don’t worry, it remains every bit as catchy.
MP3: “O Valencia” (Live @ The Beachcomber) - Colin Meloy
The lit-rockers’ irrepressible penchant for the epic manifests itself in epic long-runner “The Island”, one of the two primary song cycles around which the album is structured along with the three-part “Crane Wife” series. The latter is broken up between two songs (”The Crane Wife 1 & 2″ and album-opener “The Crane Wife 3″), while the former remains intact as one 12+ minute masterwork. “The Island”s three parts (”Come and See”, “The Landlord’s Wife”, “You’ll Not Feel The Drowning”) darts all over the map in terms of melody, pace and intensity, climaxing in a ridiculous “La-ahhhhh” falsetto the likes of which have never been heard from Meloy. The other featured song cycle is the “Crane Wife” series, the final installment of which serves to open the album perfectly. “The Crane Wife 3” is centered on a repeating descending guitar riff, accented by an emotive electric guitar stroke and completed by Meloy’s tender “hang my head, hang my head low” chorus. “The Crane Wife 1 & 2″ would be much better off split into two parts, as part one proves to be significantly better than part two, what with its driving rhythm section and the uplifting crescendo that leads into another soaring chorus, complete with an ascending xylophone progression and everything. The xylophone love continues at the end of part one, stealing the spotlight for a moment (along with an equally-catchy keys progression) before the instrumentation dies out and gives way to part two. They kind of flow into each other, but the reality is that these really should have been broken up into two separate parts, the first of only a few gripes about the album.
MP3: “The Crane Wife 3″ - The Decemberists ((highly recommended))
The only other instances in which the album stumbles are on “Yankee Bayonet” and “Shankhill Butchers”, which are by no means bad songs, but neither maintains the extremely high standard set throughout the rest of the album. “Yankee Bayonet” serves as a polite “thanks for everything” to Kill Rock Stars, as its a duet with former labelmate Laura Veirs (whose profile will be raised significantly if this album’s well received by the general public), and while the unconventional beauty of Veir’s voice nicely compliments that of Meloy, the track dwells in mediocrity and fails to be anything more than average. “Shankhill Butchers”, by far the album’s worst track, is a tedious acoustic affair that fails to recapture the emotive magic that previous Decemberists classics of the same ilk “Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect”, “On The Bus Mall” and even “Angels & Angles” did. Fortunately, the album perserveres and ends on a high note, with repeated plays proving album closer “Sons & Daughters” to be the best track. The song opens with gentle acoustic strumming and one of the catchiest vocal structures Meloy’s ever composed (also, dude gets props for rhyming “dirigible” with “untraceable”) and builds throughout, adding more instruments as it progresses and snowballing to an epic finish in which the group’s voices unite to carry the album to a perfect close. All in all, the Decemberists have turned in an extremely impressive major label debut, and while it immediately stacks up well next to their previous releases (so much so that Everett’s currently got it tabbed as his front-runner for album of the year), only time will tell if it can maintain the replayability and enjoyability of Castaways & Cutouts and last year’s career highlight (in my opinion) Picaresque.
MP3: “Sons & Daughters” - The Decemberists ((highly recommended))

October 4th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
I have to agree with you totally on “The Shankill Butchers”. It seemed like the band spent a lot of time with a rather new, prog-like sound, which works wonders on tracks such as “The Island” or “When the War Came”. However, ‘Shankill’ is more of a throwback in terms of lyrics and music, and a rather lame one at that.
I think I previously read that they had recorded about twice the amount that was released on the album. It will be pretty interesting to see these as later b-sides.
October 4th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Just want to tell you how rad the title of your blog is — Good Weather for Airstrikes.
October 4th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
Haha, thanks title fan.
October 4th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
i think the new album its great … i just love the decemberists and colin work … its one of the bands that go beyond their music with a whole concept….
October 5th, 2006 at 12:36 am
Nice review of a great album. Have to say I agree with everything but the down playing of Yankee Bayonet. I think it is a great track that is very Decemberists. When a band ventures into new territory with their sound it is always good to have a song or two that older fans can relate to from their old style. Yankee Bayonet plays this part well and is in and of itself a nice little track. Just my thoughts.
October 5th, 2006 at 2:32 am
i think yankee bayonet is one of favorite songs on there. the two voices complement each other beautifully.
October 5th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Love the Decembrists but not heard some of these ones yet. Sound good.
October 5th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
I haven’t decided how well I like The Crane Wife. Those long cycle songs put me off. I appreciate your excellent review.
~alt-gramma~ at
http://speedofdark-web.blogspot.com/
October 5th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
Not lit-rock, wit pop.
ditto shins.
October 7th, 2006 at 5:52 am
This album has been getting more and more playtime as the weeks go by. It just seems to get better and better.
I agree with you about shankill butchers (though it’s not as bad as angels and angles, which I can’t even listen to), but I think you might be missing something with Crane Wife 1+2. Normally I’d be bemoaning the fact they weren’t split into seperate tracks (a pet peeve that pretty much ruins Godspeed you Black Emperor for me), but these are more 2 halves of a whole than they are two seperate tracks. The first half is the discovery and growing attraction, uptempo excitement type stuff. The second half is the slow, tentative growth of actual love over the earlier infatuation. I think it really works - and wouldn’t work as well split into two.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
a
October 9th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
‘climaxing in a ridiculous “La-ahhhhh” falsetto the likes of which have never been heard from Meloy.’
have you heard odalisque? seems pretty similar to me…
just a thought.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
“Shankhill Butchers” is an okay track, but probably fails to catch more attention because of its production. The melody is catchy, but it’s a boring execution. Average. The two worst songs on the album are “The Perfect Crime no. 2″ and “When The War Came”. The former only survives on decent production and good guitars - the melody is poor and the chorus is awful. The latter has a good chorus, but it’s verse is terrible. The album, though, is their best to date. It actually grows on you instead of climaxing in the first week. Give it a spin.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
And I agree with some posters who think highly of “Yankee Bayonet”. The bridge, I’d argue, is probably the best moment on the album.
October 25th, 2006 at 2:40 am
I agree with Calvin. The moment I heard the “La-ahhhhh” part, I was immediately trying to recall where I had heard it before, and eventually I was reminded of Odalisque.
Also, I must disagree with your evaluation of “Yankee Bayonet”. In my opinion, it was one of the best tracks on the album. As stated many times before, the voices complement each other magnificently, and I found the song to be extremely catchy.
January 26th, 2007 at 4:20 am
Did a high schooler write this? You call “yankee bayonet” average but provide zero support for such a foolish assertion.
Oh, and I can’t help but admire the brilliance of comparing “shankill butchers” to Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect. One has a beat, the other doesn’t. It’s like saying you don’t like “lucy in the sky with diamonds” because it’s not like hey jude. moron.
April 27th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
I quite enjoy this album. I had heard their previous work, and loved it, so I was pleasantly surprised by the good quality of their work.
May 5th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
I love every single song from all of the albums. I adore Infanta and we both go down together. The mariner’s revenge song is awsome! I saw the decemberists at massaya collage and I was so happy to see you in person!
May 5th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I LOVE THE DECEMBERISTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is not one song that is bad on any album!
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