This is my first full out experience with The Decemberists, and it gets better every time I listen to it. I originally looked into it because I saw on My Brightest Diamond’s website that she had contributed vocals to it. Upon listening to a few samples on iTunes, I wasn’t that impressed, but I got it anyway. This album (and it’s a deceptively short one, at 17 tracks and only 58 minutes.) is meant to be listened to all the way through; it tells the story of Margaret (voiced by Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark,) her shape-shifting lover (voiced by Decemberists front-man Colin Meloy,) an evil queen (voiced by My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden) and a few other characters (also voiced by Meloy.)
The “Prelude” kinda confused me; I thought something had gone wrong in the downloading process, but in truth this song is very quiet. I’m pretty sure it’s silent for the first 30 seconds. Once you get past that, though, this album is almost one solid song, divided into movements. The songs flow seamlessly into each other in one continuous opus, reprising and repeating each other. Many of the songs can be listened to by themselves, and in fact, are, often, by me; especially “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid” because it;s the first track featuring Shara, and it’s just so damn powerful. But I’m also very partial to “Won’t Want For Love (Margaret in The Taiga)” which is the first song with Becky. This album is just so masterfully put together; all of the riffs are catchy, all the parts (all two of them) so well cast.
I was originally quite surprised when I saw that “The Rake’s Song” was far and away the most downloaded song off of this masterpiece, but then I gave it another listen. It’s quite angry, and tells a story in and of itself, one of an unwanted marriage, death, and violence. The screaming chorus of “Alright, alright, alright,” shows the deranged nature of the narrator, and explains the role he plays in the story. Now it gives me chills every time I listen to it.
I recommend this album to any fans of any one I have mentioned on this blog that wasn’t in my “Essence of Me” post.
The Decemberists with Shara & Becky
