Only a band like Portland, Oregon’s The Decemberists would include a mention of a strong, northwesterly wind that blows over France and the Mediterranean as an integral lyrical element and title of their track, “Mistral.” The Decemberists most defining characteristic is certainly their verbose and literary approach to folk rock, which in the past has yielded 10-minute plus songs about robbing landlord’s daughters, lines like “a paragon of parallax” and enough story-songs to write a decently-sized novel. The group’s latest album What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World follows in the steps of their previous full length release The King is Dead. Their newest LP trades in some of the weighty narratives for the kind of tight, self-contained songs that took The King is Dead to the top of the charts back in 2011.
Back after a four-year hiatus, the group still sounds recognizably like The Decemberists and offers the first-person tales, literary trappings and dedication to expanding our vocabularies that has made them one of the most unique bands in indie rock. However, there’s a distinct sense of self-awareness this time around as a result of a decade of writing and performing. The album feels like part of a natural progression from structured storytelling to songs standing on their own merits, while retaining the use of quirkily named characters and literary devices that are uniquely their own.
However, there are times when the conceit threatens to overwhelm the music and the whole thing becomes too top-heavy. “Till the Water’s All Long Gone,” for example is a dark and bluesy ballad about staying true to love. It borders on the high-minded and pretentious and threatens to collapse into self-parody. For the most part however, The Decemberists accomplish their act with tact, such as on the yearning “Lake Song,” where lines about being “17 and terminally fey” come off as charming rather than cringe-worthy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIl7h8DzGU4
The album kicks off with a shot of self-aware commentary, “The Singer Addresses his Audience,” which is written from the perspective of the lead singer of a boy band, said lead singer and guitarist Colin Meloy in an interview with Salon. But it could easily be interpreted as being about the Decemberists themselves, saying “and the hopes we wouldn’t change / but we had to change some.” More than a little tongue-in-cheek, the song addresses The Decemberists’ decision to depart from writing folk-rock operas in favor of more digestible songs that stand on their own merits.
Late album cut “Anti-Summersong” speaks to this decision as well, standing in opposition to “Summersong” from their fourth album, The Crane Wife. “I’m not going on / Just to write another summersong … don’t everybody all fall all over themselves,” he sings, finding humor in self-deprecation and a significant sense of downplaying expectations.
The album veers into weightier territory as well. “Better Not Wake the Baby,” introduces us to a mother dealing with an alcoholic and potentially abusive father by means of a thunderous descending chord riff and howling fiddle for a formidable statement of female agency. “12/17/12” is a decidedly topical ballad dealing with the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings, made more poignant by the 2013 birth of Meloy’s second son. The song contains some of The Decemberists’ most heartbreaking lyrics to date and illustrates their dexterity in matching literary songwriting with contemporary social commentary.
On a lighter note, the third cut on the album, “Philomena” is a breezy ode to oral sex, where a chaste female chorus sings alongside lines such as, “If only you’ll let me go down, down, down.” The group handles both sexual innuendo and emotionally weighty subjects well, speaking to both ends of the emotional spectrum with ease. Their greatest asset in accomplishing this is the prevalence of stellar songwriting and musicianship throughout, two qualities that are often an either-or in music. Memorable riffs and hooks abound, while the core of the majority of the songs remains the stories they tell.
