Decemberists

The Crane Wife - 2006

From the beautiful opening bass line of The Crane Wife's opening track, "The Crane Wife 3," it is made clear that this album holds a lot of wonderful surprises. When it was announced that the Decemberists' new album would be recorded for Capitol, it was assumed that the Decemberists have sold out - the little indie band had gone mainstream, and they'd never come back. But that was not the case.

The Crane Wife is a brilliant piece of music from start to finish, and surely one of the best of the year. The lyrics are still very much in the spirit of storytelling - lyricist Colin Meloy has a wonderful talent for making you care for the most bizarre characters, and when Laura Veirs pitches in in "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)," it's almost too much folk-pop-storytelling goodness to take in at once. The much-talked-about literary quality of Meloy's lyrics are not nearly as prominent as they had been in the past, when the deft placement of words like "palanquin" and "oligarch" seemed to be the focus of the songs. Here, the focus is squarely on the moods the stories evoke, and simple single phrases such as "I will hang my head low" and "The winter's so long" carry the greatest emotional weight.

As it usually happens, the genius and true beauty lies in simplicity. The Decemberists are exuberant musicians, willing to try anything, and their most common fault is taking this (admittedly admirable) aspect to far too great extremes. When they strip back and channel that exuberance into the creation of moods, some really brilliant music can result. The middle section of the record, "O Valencia!" (the best song on the record) and "The Perfect Crime #2," provide the best example of this. But the emotional epicenter of the album is "The Crane Wife 1 & 2." Its length (11+ minutes) might make you prepare yourself for a bombastic, theatrical piece after the example of "The Mariner's Revenge Song" or "The Tain," but it actually far more closely resembles the closer of their first album "California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade." As soon as it seems to be reaching a loud, heavy climax, it calms back down, and simply reflects on itself for a few minutes, before reaching its second climax, this time with such emotional simplicity and directness that the final track, "Sons and Daughters," energetic though it is, almost gets swallowed up. A beautiful end to a beautiful record.

Track List:

The Crane Wife 3

The Island, Come and See, The Landlord's Daughter, You'll Not Feel the Drow

Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)

O Valencia!

The Perfect Crime #2

When the War Came

Shankill Butchers

Summersong

The Crane Wife 1 and 2

Sons and Daughters