The Crane Wife - The Decemberists
The Crane Wife is the Decemberists' darkest, and best, album yet. This time, Colin Meloy takes lyrical inspiration from an old Japanese fable about a young wife who turns into a bird, and he gets quite a bit of mileage from it. Though, lyrics aside, these songs seem to find Meloy and the Decemberists at their most mature, complex and profound - the one anomaly is a breezy track appropriately titled Summersong. As on their Tain ep, the band experiments with a deliberate prog rock sound on a couple songs including The Island, one of two tracks over ten minutes in length. O Valencia!, the first single from the album, may be the most radio friendly of the bunch, but it's not the best. Standout tracks include the first song of the album, The Crane Wife 3, Shankhill Butchers, and The Crane Wife 1 & 2.
posted by suavefaire at 4:28 PM
5 Comments:
The Decemberists are the best! And this album is tops.
The Decemberists are the best! And this album is tops.
hey suave, good to see you back in October. npr's all things considered did a thing on the album last week too. sounds good.
Well said Kylie. And it deserved to be said twice.
I haven't liked much of what I've heard of the Decemberists, but this sounds interesting with the whole crane-woman thing.
... reminds me of Okkervil River's obsesion with the Black Sheep Boy. I want to hear this.
Thanks.
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