subject: "The King Is Dead" by The Decemberists a Review [print this page] "The King Is Dead" by The Decemberists a Review
The Decemberists intended to create an album with music to play live and that didn't need to be framed by other songs, tunes that could just be busted out.
Colin Meloy said "For all my talk about how complex those [previous] records were, this one may have been harder to do. It's a real challenge to make simple music, and lot of times we had to deliberately hold off and keep more space. This record is an exercise in restraint."
The challenge was mastered with the help of producer Tucker Martine (producer, born in Nashville, worked with R.E.M., Sufjan Stevens, Spoon etc.), R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and Gillian Welch. The prevailing instruments on the album are acoustic guitars, banjo, harmonica and violins (country fiddlers).The lyrics and Colin Meloy's singing are at the expected high levels which are some of the factors that make this album so enjoyable.
Although "The King Is Dead" is a country-rock album oriented towards americana, it's an album under heavy R.E.M. influence ("Down By The Water" and "Calamity Song" could be R.E.M. songs), other influences are Tom Petty (the intro in "Don't Carry It All"), Dylan, Neil Young, etc. It's also an album that could bring the Decemberists more airplay ("Rox In The Box", "Down By The Water", "This Is Why We Fight") and thereby closer to the mainstream.
The album is a big step in the opposite direction from "The Hazards of Love" their last album, and it seems to be a step in the right direction even if that means The Decemberists losing some fans of the last album.
The album gets a well deserved 8/10 by us.
"The King Is Dead" track list:
"Don't Carry It All"
"Calamity Song"
"Rise to Me"
"Rox in the Box"
"January Hymn"
"Down By the Water"
"All Arise!"
"June Hymn"
"This Is Why We Fight"
"Dear Avery"
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