#99

Iā€™ve always wondered who gets to pick the tracks for these kinds of albums, wondering if they have another ā€˜Hurtā€™ on their hands. see also: Glen Campell covering GBV. But this a pretty nice cover regardless

#100

One of my top five bands of all time, if not top three.

I didnā€™t actually like them that much at first. I got bought Picaresque and struggled to get past his voice; I listened to The Crane Wife and thought it was a bit of widdly prog nonsense.

Two things made it fall into place for me though. First was seeing them live. Had no idea what to expect but they are one of the most joyful and life-affirming live acts. And who doesnā€™t enjoy making actions like the jaws of a whale?

The second was parenthood. Itā€™s not their strongest album but The King Is Dead said all the right things at a time I needed it the most. I remember my eldest having such a rough time at pre-school, and we didnā€™t know she was autistic yet, and I remember listening to Dear Avery (ā€œthere are times life will rattle your bones and will bend your limbsā€) and just being floored by it. So thereā€™s a whole bunch of memories and feelings linked to their music and I struggle not to tear up a bit when I hear the eldest singing them around the house.

Incidentally, the Decemberists are one of only two acts who the whole CCB household enjoys. Of course some of the subject matter isnā€™t particularly suitable for younger children but when they mistakenly sing ā€œspending all your money on the Horse And Houndsā€ I donā€™t correct them. We play January Hymn in the car all January, and June hymn all June. They have such a good way with both word and melody, and thereā€™s rarely a time where I donā€™t fancy listening to them.

They do give a fair amount of ammunition to their critics, what with Meloyā€™s voice (which I love) and their flowery use of language (which I also love too). And their last album was patchy at best. So Iā€™m not expecting them to score highly. But theyā€™re a clear 5 from me, even if Iā€™d have given them a 2 on first listen.

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#101

Can we guess the other? Is it Sufjan?

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#102

Yes! I forgot to say. I think theyā€™re quite similar in a lot of respects.

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#103

Iā€™ve still never heard him so I canā€™t comment but I love what an in-depth knowledge I seem to have about the ccb household.

#104

Yes, I probably overshare a bit :grimacing:

You should do something about not having listened to Sufjan.

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#105

I should. Someone made me a primer during his HGATR but I never got around to it.

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#106

Love this one, yet more death by water, it feels like a throwback to Hazards. I just finished listening to Iā€™ll Be Your Girl, donā€™t think I have since around when it came out, a very peculiar album. Iā€™m glad they tried new avenues even if one led them to glam rock and a kids choir. Really like Severed and the title track too.

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#107

Interesting thread for a periodically interesting band. I can only echo what most have already said, in that I got into them around Picaresque, absolutely love about 10 of their songs, and havenā€™t listened to them much post-Crane Wife.

I revisited both those albums today and they still stand up, and the thread also reminded me of this late-career showstopper, so cheers for that:

And the anchorperson on TV / goes la di da di da

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#108

Tremendous song and so evil. I think the Meloy household has a of The Gashlycrumb Tinies somewhere. Expect you think that I should be haunted, but it never really bothers me, brrrrrrrr

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#109

Think the post Hazards albums are all a bit of a mish mash. Some excellent songs and a few clunkers. Theyā€™ve got a few different styles and directions in their repertoire now but as a result the albums seem to lack a flow or identity. Still good mind.
Yeah itā€™s very Hazards-y, frankly a big fan of when they go all in on epic almost prog.
Damn fine band.

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#110

Really enjoyed the streaming shows Meloy did during the early lockdown days.
On one of them he ended being egged on by fans and played about half of the Hazards of Love album in full before being like ā€œyeah thereā€™s no way I can play the next few tracks on my own here folksā€.
Seems like a good lad.
Read his first book and it was good. I see Laika pictures have the rights to a movie of it, would love to see that providing Decemberists do the soundtrack obvs.

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#111

Hmmm, interesting one. Really really loved Picaresque, the CD of which I ripped from my exā€™s collection. Also really liked The King Is Dead when it it came out, much more ā€˜lightweightā€™ but then thatā€™s also itā€™s strength. Listened to Crane Wife and Hazards a bit, but never enough for them to properly stick in the mind. Saw them live circa 2011 and it was great, not heard any of the albums since then. From what people have said here it sounds like Iā€™d not enjoy them much.

Itā€™s true that they give their critics a lot of ammunition. Their main characteristics can be a bitā€¦ stodgy I guess? Something you have to be in the mood for, and if you arenā€™t they might annoy you. For me the stuff I know and like already is probably enough Decemberists for me, I donā€™t feel the need to explore more

That said, Picaresque is fantastic, and the Engine Driver / Bus Mall combo is sublime: all that wordiness flows like water. Something really special captured there. And then the Revenge Song after is really good dramatic fun.

Iā€™m not going to judge them on what Iā€™ve not heard, and the highs are very high, so I think itā€™s a 4 from me.

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#112

they got progressively proggier and proggier right up to the ā€œthe hazards of loveā€ which was a wild listen and thenā€¦they regressed to middling mediocrity

their highs are super high and since their prog-folk-metal phase theyā€™ve been pretty boring

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#113

This is great from their recent stuff

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#114

This made me lol

#115

meh

#116

4/5, especially for the run of Castwaysā€¦/Picaresque/The Crane Wife. Literate, but never too arch (for my own tastes, may vary for others), and often transcendentally beautiful. As mentioned a fair bit here, The Engine Driver / On The Bus Mall one is an incredible one-two.

Saw them in 2007 at Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton. Land of Talk opened and were incredible. Colin Meloy had food poisoning and had to leave the stage for long periods of time.

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#117

Iā€™ve really come round to What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World today, it could do with losing two or three tracks maybe but itā€™s a good album, much better than I remembered. Either itā€™s not as boring as I thought it was or my taste has got duller in the last 5 years (probably both).

Offa Rex hasnā€™t been mentioned yet I donā€™t think, The Decemberists plus Olivia Chaney singing folk songs, Black Leg Miner sounds like it could have been on Her Majesty The Decemberists

#118

I fell hard in love with Her Majesty around the time it came out - 2003, 2004 - and it got some pretty heavy rotation at the time but it was the era of Pitchfork-approved-American-Indie and there was a lot going on and some rose high and above the water (Arcade Fire) and somehow, they just sort of slipped from my memory a couple of years later.

I think I gave Picaresque a quick listen at the time but I guess by that point I was into something else entirely and so I pretty much forgot them until last year when I happened upon a copy of The Crane Wife in a charity shop, and I picked it up (alongside Tunngā€™s Comments Of The Inner Chorus and Secret Machinesā€™ Ten Silver Drops - someone was clearing out their mid-2000s indie/folk-adjacent collection, evidently). I listened to all three and I think Ten Silver Drops was the more immediate but Iā€™ve put on The Crane Wife this afternoon and it is splendid. I love the proggyness. It absolutely makes it for me, itā€™s a brilliant enhancement of what would be a nice collection of simple folk songs that with a sympathetic prog arrangement burst to life, building upon themselves into joyous crescendos that feel like youā€™re being pulled right into the music.

I canā€™t say I have the emotional connection that some here have but I do kind of feel like Iā€™ve found an old friend and we have a lot to catch up.

I was going to go with a 3, but I think a 4 is appropriate - The Crane Wife is very special, and The Gymnast, High Above the Ground from Her Majesty is a wonderful bit of storytelling Iā€™m now reconnecting with.

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