I’m back to work after what was an action packed and social four-day weekend. I had not one, not two but three friends visiting from out of town, which was awesome, and all of them, plus a series of fun events with both visitors and locals resulting in me feeling much love and companionship.
The weekend wrapped up on Monday with attendance at the Remembrance Day ceremony. It felt appropriate to wrap up a weekend so filled with good times by setting aside some time for somber reflection on the sacrifices of our veterans to preserve our great way of life. Thanks to them, yesterday, today, and always.
OK, now a music review.
Disc 1781 is…What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
Artist: The Decemberists
Year of Release: 2015
What’s up with the Cover? Some cheerful goddess figure strides about on a floating orb (the earth?) brandishing a wavy bladed sword and a short bow. I’m not familiar with this particular myth.
The rest of the cover is a bunch of repeating imagery in a colour scheme that looks like it was chosen by a Microsoft Office template. There appears to be a lot going on here but actually, not really.
Fortunately the album is way better than the cover.
How I Came To Know It: I was already a big fan of the Decemberists when this record came out, on the heels their masterpiece, “The King is Dead” (reviewed way back at Disc 490).
This was just me buying what came next. I may or may not have listened to it first, but probably not.
How It Stacks Up: I have nine Decemberists albums, which I believe is all of them. I guess I’m a fan. Of those nine, “What a Terrible World…” (not typing it) is one of the best. I would say it is in a statistical tie for second with “The Crane Wife” but since you don’t read this section to watch me equivocate, I’ll give “The Crane Wife” the slight edge, landing “What A Terrible World…” respectably at third.
Ratings: 4 stars
It may have taken four years for the Decemberists to follow their masterpiece, “the King is Dead” but the wait was worth it. “What a Terrible World…” is an indie folk masterpiece.
Stylistically they don’t stray far from “the King is Dead” although the arrangements feel a bit richer overall. Despite this it never feels saturated or busy, and any additional mélange of instruments or flourishes are well placed and deliberate. Everything serves the song, and the melodies – which are a delight – are front and centre throughout.
These melodies feel simple enough, but I know from trying to “dumb down” Decemberist songs to the level of my limited guitar playing, that they are sneaky complicated. Lots of slight variations to chords evoke a complex set of emotions from songs that on the surface feel very straightforward. “Sneaky good” comes to mind.
Songwriter (and lead vocalist) Colin Meloy is ever at the ready with a quiver full of clever (but never trite) turns of phrase. He sings this liquid poetry in his signature high quaver that lifts you up into an elevated headspace where he promptly…makes you think. If you want a mindless beat or a club banger, this stuff is not for you.
Case in point, the opening track, “The Singer Addresses His Audience” in which…the singer addresses his audience. Often singing in character, here Meloy breaks down the fourth wall with the most honest depiction of the relationship between a band and their fans since Rush’s Neil Peart penned the lyrics to “Limelight”. While there are places in “The Singer Addresses His Audience” that are slightly tongue in cheek, it is the kind of gentle kidding that you do among friends. Or in this case in the artificial relationships between the famous and those who adore them.
A few songs later “Make You Better” gets fully serious, with a song of desperate longing. The broken object of affection is only half the story, with the desperate need to help them the other half of the story, a spiral akin to “The Singer Addresses His Audience” but minus any lighthearted element. The song soars ere the end, but it is the soaring of recognition when something is wrong and it is time to fly over it and see it for what it is, and always was.
Those songs are both in the first third of the record, but there are gems a-plenty to follow, right up to the brilliant trio of “Mistral”, “12/17/12” and “A Beginning Song” that finishes the record off.
“A Beginning Song” once again achieves a subtle duality, ending the record with a song that feels like it both wraps all the musical themes up, but also with a newfound hope of discovery that makes you want to go back to the record’s beginning and play it again.
This is, not coincidentally, why it took me so long to get around to writing this review. I just kept cycling back to the beginning and enjoying another full listen. Things never got tiresome for me and if anything, the record just kept unfurling its mysteries.
Best tracks: The Singer Addresses His Audience, Make You Better, Lake Song, Mistral, 12/17/12, A Beginning Song
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