The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love (or: the century's longest ballad to date)

It's a shame that the artistry of building an album as a cohesive story-telling unit is just about dead. Fortunately, The Decemberists are holding the shock paddles, insisting that the failing art, "Better not die on me, Goddamn it!"

These are my words, but I like them, so I'm sticking with it.

The Decemberists recently released their ballad "The Hazards of Love", which takes Crane Wife to the next level. From three mere songs to an entire album dedicated to telling one story, the Decemberists have created an epic that isn't rarely seen in the modern music scene. Fortunately, this ballad ends up to be closer to Pink Floyd's non-pareil "The Wall" rather than Catch 22's forgettable "Permanent Revolution".

I've been anticipating this release for a while, and only now, after digesting it a bit, do I feel like I can make any sorts of comments on it. First of all, I think this is going to be the Gateway Drug for the Decemberists. This is probably the most accessible album to the mainstream pop community. None of the songs have that carnival, bouncy feel with the folk guitar singing. In fact, the entire album feels dreadfully like a dirge compared to their other works. Ironically though, the lyrics are actually less dark than the standard fare. Compared to their earlier songs referencing rape ("The Bachelor and the Bride" or "We Both Go Down Together"), cannibalism ("16 Military Wives"), or war ("Yankee Bayonet"), songs about love, loss, and jealousy almost seem banal.

Also, Meloy's trademark doctorate level vocabulary is noticably absent: not that it is necessarily a bad thing. As an English major, The Decemberists always sort of intimidated me, as I'd have to pull out my dictionary (or in some cases, the OED) to understand the songs. If I have trouble, I only imagine that the masses who spend their time doing other things, like working or going outside on a sunny day, would have even more trouble.

The Decemberists always manage to pull in this amazing talent that you've never heard of to put on their tracks. In a change befitting the direness of moods, Colin Meloy put two female vocalists from other indie bands: Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark, and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden to play parts in this opera. I have to say that as much as I enjoy Meloy's awkward boy-voice, I was absolutely stunned by Shara Worden. Upon hearing "The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid", several things happened:

1. I acquired everything I could of My Brightest Diamond
2. I wished desperately that Shara Worden would become a regular part of the Decemberists
3. I got a hard-on

With a bone-chilling vibrato, the darkness that seeps through the role of the jealous queen is everything from smokey to amazingly sexy. This isn't to say that Becky Stark is any slouch either. Her voice is a lot like a female version of Meloy's voice. There is a sort of childlikeness to it: something coquettish and ephemeral: something altogether maddening.

All in all, it is a little depressing to see some of the staples of the Decemberists change, in addition to there not being any standalone, throw-away type songs that are easier to quote for away messages and livejournal posts, but here's hoping that this was just a one shot project. It's a phenominal album, but I have a hard time with ballads and operas because there is often little you can do with them out of their context other than discuss diction, but I'm praddling on about English major things.

Happy listening!