more on the Decemberists, Picaresque
Mar. 25th, 2005 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solipsistnationOkay, I have to admit, I didn't much get into Her Majesty, The Decemberists. This surprised me, since, as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stophittinyrslf will be the first to point out, I listened to Castaways and Cutouts WAY too much. (And it's her own fault. Sure, putting "Grace Cathedral Hill" on a CD endeared her to me even more, but it doomed her to hear Castaways and Cutouts a couple of times a weeks for a good long time.)
It seemed as if, after C&C's exhuberent exeperimentation, they'd relaxed a bit-- they said to themselves, well, hey, we can write interesting songs, now let's kick back a bit, and while the lyrics were still erudite, they were a little more forced and the songwriting itself was less inspired. They'd slid back from their excursions into diverse styles and instrumentation and become a much less interesting guitar-indie band. There are a ton of guitar-indie bands out there, and some of them are also very clever, so HMTD stood out much less in my mind than C&C.
On Picaresque, the old experimentation is back, and the sound is much more diverse and full than HMTD. Any fears that I had just spent horrible Barnes&Noble CD-pricing cash on an album that would be just sort of interesting vanished with the opening drums and bombast of "The Infanta." I grinned as they moved into "We Both Go Down Together," and if "Eli, The Barrow Boy" seemed a little uninspired on first listen, it bloomed on the second, as did "The Sporting Life."
And, well, I'm not even all the way through my first complete listen. I played the first few songs in the car last night on the way home, and today I've got it playing through headphones at work. Chances are I'll be working these striking and complex songs with their clever internally-rhyming and extremely literate lyrics very thoroughly into my subconscious as I walk back and forth between home and campus and whereever else I roam, thanks to the magic of the iPod. Tomorrow I will most likely be heading to Brandeis to watch a rugby match, and during that drive (at least on the way out of Worcester), I will be doing my best to sing along at the top of my lungs and learn the high harmony parts.
There are also certainly a lot of musical nods on this album-- the drums that open "The Sporting Life" echo "Lust for Life," while the strummed guitar of "The Engine Driver" are taken almost verbatim from The Smiths' "Unhappy Birthday." The lyrics are pure Decemberists, though, and I find my vocabulary expanding as I listen. This is not to say that this is music so challenging it requires a post-doctorate to appreciate. Indeed not, for these songs manage to be engaging on a very basic level, like good pop music or the catchiest of folk tunes from the glory days of songs about death and the sea and lost love and lost lovers, back before much of folk was co-opted by whining.
Highly, highly recommended.
stophittinyrslf will be the first to point out, I listened to Castaways and Cutouts WAY too much. (And it's her own fault. Sure, putting "Grace Cathedral Hill" on a CD endeared her to me even more, but it doomed her to hear Castaways and Cutouts a couple of times a weeks for a good long time.) It seemed as if, after C&C's exhuberent exeperimentation, they'd relaxed a bit-- they said to themselves, well, hey, we can write interesting songs, now let's kick back a bit, and while the lyrics were still erudite, they were a little more forced and the songwriting itself was less inspired. They'd slid back from their excursions into diverse styles and instrumentation and become a much less interesting guitar-indie band. There are a ton of guitar-indie bands out there, and some of them are also very clever, so HMTD stood out much less in my mind than C&C.
On Picaresque, the old experimentation is back, and the sound is much more diverse and full than HMTD. Any fears that I had just spent horrible Barnes&Noble CD-pricing cash on an album that would be just sort of interesting vanished with the opening drums and bombast of "The Infanta." I grinned as they moved into "We Both Go Down Together," and if "Eli, The Barrow Boy" seemed a little uninspired on first listen, it bloomed on the second, as did "The Sporting Life."
And, well, I'm not even all the way through my first complete listen. I played the first few songs in the car last night on the way home, and today I've got it playing through headphones at work. Chances are I'll be working these striking and complex songs with their clever internally-rhyming and extremely literate lyrics very thoroughly into my subconscious as I walk back and forth between home and campus and whereever else I roam, thanks to the magic of the iPod. Tomorrow I will most likely be heading to Brandeis to watch a rugby match, and during that drive (at least on the way out of Worcester), I will be doing my best to sing along at the top of my lungs and learn the high harmony parts.
There are also certainly a lot of musical nods on this album-- the drums that open "The Sporting Life" echo "Lust for Life," while the strummed guitar of "The Engine Driver" are taken almost verbatim from The Smiths' "Unhappy Birthday." The lyrics are pure Decemberists, though, and I find my vocabulary expanding as I listen. This is not to say that this is music so challenging it requires a post-doctorate to appreciate. Indeed not, for these songs manage to be engaging on a very basic level, like good pop music or the catchiest of folk tunes from the glory days of songs about death and the sea and lost love and lost lovers, back before much of folk was co-opted by whining.
Highly, highly recommended.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-25 03:04 pm (UTC)You've got to be kidding me. Experimentation? That album plays it by the books so well it could be a marine.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-25 03:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-25 03:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-25 03:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-25 03:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-25 03:45 pm (UTC)Snarkyness aside, I'm actually curious.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-27 12:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-27 02:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-25 06:26 pm (UTC)I have been meaning to check out the Decemberists, but haven't had a chance yet...they are on my list!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-25 09:53 pm (UTC)Even though I had the album for a long time, I kind of pushed it aside and hadn't listened.. then my iPod thought it would be a good idea to play 'A Cautionary Tale' when I had it on random and it blew my mind. The story combined with the 'piratey' sound made by the beat and accordian got me interested immediately. I had to hear the rest :D
So then, I got Picaresque a few weeks ago hoping that C&C wasn't a one-time fluke. Thankfully it wasn't at all - and I enjoy Picaresque just as much. The Infanta, The Sporting Life, Sixteen Military Wives, and especially ESPECIALLY The Mariner's Revenge are my favorites. If they decided to to an album entirely in the style of Mariner's Revenge / A Cautionary Tale I would love it.
(One last Decemberists note - I haven't heard HMTD yet)
Anyway, I didn't really have a point to this reply other to share in on the Decemberist's love. Mr. Sharp is too grumpy to enjoy music by artists with more than one album. Always off to the next best thing and never enjoying a second album. He's a fan of music for sure, but I don't know if he's a fan of any one band. He doesn't even like the new Mountain Goats :(
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-25 09:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-29 02:22 pm (UTC)The Tain is interesting. I think I need to listen to it another time or two to be sure of what I actually think, though.
It's also amusing that your favorite songs on Picaresque and C&C are my least favorite songs. 8) (No judgements implied here, just difference in taste.)