My Amazon Reviews: The Decemberists “What a Terrible World, What a Wonderful World”

What a Beautiful World We Live In
4 Out Of 5 Stars

After pounding out an R.E.M. sound-alike in 2011 in the form of "The King Is Dead," The Decemberists back up a bit for the more middle of the road "What A Terrible World, What A Wonderful World." There are some subtle changes, like heavier strings and horn charts, which are good. The band that crafted CD long suites now starts off an album with a song where the band apologizes for making a commercial for Axe Shampoo ("The Singer Addresses His Audience"). They know they aren't the same band that cut the masterful "The Crane Wife," and openly admit such.

What they are for "What a Terrible World..." are a crafter of songs. They've found a sweet spot between the ornate structure of those early albums to a sense of pop melody. It makes a love song like "Philomenia" all the more jaunty and "Lake Song" a hip folkie haunter. The band also sound more integrated this time around, where "The King Is Dead" was a showcase for Chris Funk, here, piano dominates many of the songs. Me. I kind of like when they get into that folk vein, as one of my favorites here - Colin Malloy almost making a sea shanty song out of "Better Not Wake The Baby."

"What a Terrible World..." will probably polarize fans who can't get over the fact that the band hit an early peak and then decided to try other things. As for me, I can respect that The Decemberists are not content to stay in one place for every album. Maybe they still aspire to be R.E.M. or even 10,000 Maniacs (some of the poetic lyrics recall the Maniacs'). What ever direction they travel, I am happy to follow as long as the music is this good.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Soundtrack "The Hunger Games"

Songs to Kill People By 
4 Out Of 5 Stars

300 Years in the future and folk music is still high lonesome depression. Guess "The Hunger Games" thinks that - other than watching kids kill each other for sport - we won't be changing all that much. These songs (mostly inspired by the film/book as opposed to being featured in said film), stick mainly to acoustic guitars and the sad laments of the participants. I find it funny in the odd way that kids usually pounding their way to hip-hop and punk rock will be lapping up country waltzes ("Tomorrow Will be Kinder" by Secret Sisters) and Appalachian cries like The Carolina Chocolate Drops doing "Daughter's Lament."

T-Bone Burnette, as executive producer, allows for few curve balls. Kid Cudi gives the disc its heaviest and most ominous song with "The Ruler and The Killer," which sounds more like the oppressive state that would find a real life version of "The Hunger Games" to be a day's TV dinner. Adam Levine is pulled away from his comfort zone, as Maroon 5 pick up a mandolin and ditch the synths for "Come Away To The Water." Taylor Swift sounds all grown up as she teams with the Civil Wars for "Safe and Sound" then The CW gets their own chance to shine with "Kingdom Come" ("Don't cry my dear, it will all be over soon").

The Alt-Rock crowd gets two dollops from Arcade Fire and The Decemberists. AF pounds out a militaristic drum tattoo on the threatening lullabye "Abraham's Daughter," while Colin Meloy keeps the Decemberists in REM territory for "One Engine." It also happens to be the most propulsive song on the disc, so maybe life in District 12 won't be so sad after all. It used to be that you couldn't turn on the radio without being pummeled by songs from a film, be they good or bad. Since that has changed and the deluge slowed, good soundtracks are harder to come by. "The Hunger Games" is one of the better one and hits more than it doesn't.

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Decemberists "The Hazards of Love"

The Hazards of Ambition  
4 Out Of 5 Stars

On their fifth full-length CD, The Decemberists went all-in for a concept album about love and death. Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson were probably feeling tingles as Colin Meloy started working up this weird fairy-tail about Margaret and her shape-shifting saviour, maidens, white fawns, murderous paramours, a jealous woodland queen and other literary types in a 17-part song-cycle. Equal parts "Thick As A Brick," Richard and Linda Thompson's "Shoot Out The Lights" and Rush's metal concepts, "The Hazards of Love" is as complex as it is geeky.

In addition to all the pretense and encyclopedic folk-rock-opera goings on the make geeks drool, guest vocalists include Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond and Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, as well as Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Rebecca Gates of the Spinanes), and (bonus nerd points!) Robyn Hitchcock. The music swings from plucked banjos to crunching metal riffage, from 4/4 pounders to gentle, woodsy waltzes. There's also an evil sense of humor ("The Rake"), which helps leaven the seriousness of it all. And let's face it, "The Hazards of Love" wants to be taken really seriously. With Colin Meloy's bookish lyrics and unsung bearded guitar hero Chris Funk lays down such an amazing variety of licks, he makes the gumbo of styles come together mightily.

"The Hazards of Love" may have been the album to get The Decemberists to settle down, ultimately. Rich, bulky and ambitious, it gave way to the compositionally tighter and more cohesive "The King is Dead" two years later. But for sheer chutzpah, "The Hazards of Love" wins for one of 2009's best albums.

My Amazon Reviews: The Byrds "Greatest Hits"

In The Jingle Jangle Morning  
5 Out Of 5 Stars

This best of was released in 1967, after four full length Byrds albums. It was the peak of The Byrds' creativity and influence. Despite a fluid lineup, they crafted a sound that fell somewhere between the folkiness and beat poetry of Bob Dylan and the melodic propulsion of The Beatles. For many listeners, The Byrds were the band that introduced them to Dylan, and for other to Pete Seeger. Even today, Roger McGuinn's jangling twelve string Rickenbacker guitar holds sway in groups ranging through Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, R.E.M. and The Decemberists.

This expanded edition still sticks to the guidlines, as it stays to singles up to 1967. While this may annoy fans of the country rock that began to dominate once "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" was released, it does make for a consistency in sound. (2003's "Essential Byrds" covers the following peeriod in addition to the first four albums.) It also shows the songwriting prowess of the band members, specifiaclly McGuinn and Gene Clark. They could take folk (Seeger's "Turn Turn Turn") or psychedelia ("Eight Miles High") and still shape it for their signature sound. Clark's own "Fell A Whole Lot Better" was such a landmark that Petty chose it for his first solo album, "Full Moon Fever." (And for a really twist, find Roxy Music's version of "8 Miles High.")

One of the real tests of a greatest hits collection is if it holds together as an album. "The Byrds' Greatest Hits" does exactly that. By mixing in the groups superb singles with prime album cuts, it makes the CD play like a unified whole. It holds up as one of The Byrds most endearing and enduring albums.

 

Gogol Bordello Play Newport Folk Festival!

More Pictures through the clickie

The Decemberists Play Newport Folk Festival!

More Pictures through the clickie

My Amazon Reviews: The Decemberists "The King is Dead"

The Decemberists create their Own Reckoning  
4 Out Of 5 Stars

After a discography laden with concept albums, song suites and journeys into progressive folk-rock, The Decemberists use "The King is Dead" to tighten things up and concentrate on songs. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable album that highlights their brightest components in a folk-rocking context. The tangled lyrics and thoughtful structure are all still their, just this time unencumbered by awkward or forced transitional periods.

The focus this time is on Americana; "The King is Dead" takes cues from Neil Young and The Byrds as well as early R.E.M. (Peter Buck is a guest on several songs here, as well). In fact, "The King is Dead" often sounds more like an R.E.M. album than "Collapse Into Know" does. Guest vocalist Gillian Welch adds terrific harmonies to such "Reckoning/Document" soundalikes as "Down By The Water" and "Rox In The Box." It also showcases multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk, who slides from everything from Pedal Steel to Bouzouki and reveals him as The Decemberists' secret weapon. It's Funk's instrumental work that gives vocalist and main writer Colin Meloy the wide variety of canvas that "The King Is Dead" paints its portrait of Americana on. In my opinion,  their best offering to date.

And! They'll be back at this year's Newport Folk Festival! I took these pictures at the NFF's 50th, Summer of 2009: