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Album Review

The Decemberists
The King Is Dead Rough Trade

Article written by Matt H - Jan 15, 2011

The Decemberists - Jingle Jangle Scarecrows

The Decemberists have always seemed like one of the more interesting of the huge throngs of chin-stroking indie-folkies, because of their more Anglophile focus and capacity both to do spare tunefulness and bigger more complex songs. But this is the first time I’ve picked up a whole album, only to find that they’ve taken a big step towards genuine, straightforward US country-rock.

They’ve got some fine friends in to help out. One of the most noticable is Peter Buck, not least because on a number of the tracks (such as Calamity Song) Colin Meloy appears to be paying such homage to early REM (and through them back to the Byrds, on January Hymn) it’s bordering on the pastiche. Now of course early REM was great and these are very decent efforts too, as are the more mainstream tunes. But it’s difficult to shake the feeling when the likes of Gillian Welch crop up to sprinkle some of their magic, that it sounds like the grown-ups who do this sort of thing properly have come to help out the neophytes - despite the years the Decemberists themselves have already put in.

What you’re left with is a pleasant and engaging album - even when, as with Rox In The Box, it sounds like nothing so much as the Levellers. (I rather liked the Levellers…) And thoughts that what you really want to hear might be the record they make in two or three albums’ time when they've grown into the new country clothes a little better.

Links:
http://www.decemberists.com/
http://www.roughtraderecords.com/decemberists
http://www.facebook.com/thedecemberists