Decemberists - The Crane Wife

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Okay, I know some of y'all out there have this - so is it more in a "Picaresque" direction or a "Tain" one? 'Cause the former was a little weak. Anyone?

― Simon H. (Simon H.), Monday, 31 July 2006 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

People have this? Anyway, according to Amy Phillips:

"Colin Meloy wasn't lying when he said that the Decemberists' forthcoming Capitol debut would have more in common with the band's 2004 18-minute epic The Tain than last year's Picaresque."

So I'm hopeful.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:16 (nineteen years ago)

but see, I love Picaresque and could do without the Tain EP

― Stephen Bush (Stephen B.), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:20 (nineteen years ago)

Well then you must be banished.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:21 (nineteen years ago)

BANISHED TO THE ISLAND OF GENOSHA

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:22 (nineteen years ago)

"according to Amy Phillips" colin meloy is god
"according to Amy Phillips" the pipettes are great

ugh, never trust her. worst tatse in music, PERIOD

― kevin barking (arghargh), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:24 (nineteen years ago)

worst tits in music

― S-L-U-G (plsmith), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:25 (nineteen years ago)

The album wasn't bad but "Mariner's Revenge Song" almost singlehandedly sunk the damn think.

― Simon H. (Simon H.), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:25 (nineteen years ago)

I agree, except that "Mariner's Revenge Song" is great live.

― jerry yeti (yeti), Monday, 31 July 2006 18:42 (nineteen years ago)

I'd rather listen to Her Majesty and Castaways 3 times each than listen to Mariner's Revenge Song. On the Bus Mall, though, is a great track.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Monday, 31 July 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

This gonna be slippin good - mark my words.

― paulhw (paulhw), Monday, 31 July 2006 23:09 (nineteen years ago)

Can anyone hazard a guess as to what crazy lyrics he'll come up with on the new one?
I'm guessing he's going to rhyme "Bartleby's monocle" with "Damocles chronicle". Or "my fair maiden Desdemona" with "the airy plains of Pamplona"

― Jacobo Rock (jacobo rock), Monday, 31 July 2006 23:39 (nineteen years ago)

"byzantine labyrinth" with "velvetween amaranth"

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 03:16 (nineteen years ago)

velveteen, that is.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 03:16 (nineteen years ago)

Or was "velvetween" a Freudian slip? Hmm!

kidding, kidding... I like the Decemberists. :D

― Mama Roux (Mama Roux), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 04:31 (nineteen years ago)

Freudian slip: when you say one thing, but you're thinking of a mother.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 04:33 (nineteen years ago)

i had to walk out on the decemberists once. it was the first time i'd ever heard them. they rhymed "pantaloon" with "cartoon" and i bolted.

― a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 04:39 (nineteen years ago)

Soldiering Life is a good tune, though.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 04:41 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, that last album sucked. incredibly bland it was. the tain wasnt all that though... i wish they'd go back to the style of songs on the 1st album, with the lyrics of the second. they'd be much better off.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 02:53 (nineteen years ago)

"i had to walk out on the decemberists once. it was the first time i'd ever heard them. they rhymed "pantaloon" with "cartoon" and i bolted.
-- a name means a lot just by itself (lfamula...) (webmail), August 1st, 2006."

I think i love you

this about sums up why i hate this band SO SO MUCH

― kevin barking (arghargh), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 12:49 (nineteen years ago)

"we are vagabonds, we travel without seatbelts on" was the last good lyric colin meloy wrote. from there it was all downhill to "I'm a moneylender / take my hand for tender" and "then the magistrate / reclaimed our small estate"

(TS: rhyming big words with very common words vs. rhyming big words with other big words)

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

My first impressions of Crane Wife are mostly positive. There are some bits that rub me the wrong way, but it seems like an improvement over most of Picaresque in terms of sound, arrangement, and writing.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Thursday, 17 August 2006 03:49 (nineteen years ago)

i liked the drums on that first song on picaresque. are there more drums on the new album? (i have it sitting here, seal unbroken, so i could find out by actually putting it on. but that seems like work.)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 17 August 2006 04:28 (nineteen years ago)

The whole thing is more of a pop/rock full band affair, I'd say. There isn't really a shortage of drums. It really has some great moments.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Thursday, 17 August 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

Yankee Bayonet is pretty - I like the female voice
The Perfect Crime is verging on funky - one of their best
Shakill butchers is chilling and interesting.

I like it a lot so far.

― paulhw (paulhw), Thursday, 17 August 2006 19:14 (nineteen years ago)

The Perfect Crime and Shankill Butchers are probably the weakest, I think. Shankill Butchers got bootlegged awhile ago, and the recorded version is almost exactly the same, except Colin hams it up even more. The Perfect Crime gets annoying when he sings the title line ad nauseum.

Yankee Bayonet, Summersong, and Sons and Daughters are Great. The title tracks, too.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Thursday, 17 August 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

Oh man, I'm so on the fence about The Decemberists. "we are vagabonds, we travel without seatbelts on" was NOT a good lyric! It's maybe one of the worst. The Decemberists are ultra pretentious, as is colin meloy's voice.

However they get points just for this video:

http://www.otaku-house.com/films/decdnload.htm

Also I guess they're not so bad -- I mean, if you like They Might Be Giants or Crash Test Dummies. I'd let my kids listen to them, if I had kids.

― Public Radio (public_radio), Friday, 18 August 2006 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

"we are vagabonds, we travel without seatbelts on" was NOT a good lyric! It's maybe one of the worst. The Decemberists are ultra pretentious, as is colin meloy's voice.

You're kidding, right? His voice is pretentious? WTF?

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Friday, 18 August 2006 06:08 (nineteen years ago)

Yankee Bayonet is pretty - I like the female voice

Ofcourse you do, it's the great Laura Veirs!

I'm relly getting into this album. The opener sets the tone for me, it's really nice and 'heartfelt', gentle. The progsuite I'm still not too crazy about, but I'm not loathing it either. It's more 'Yes-sy' then Yes ever was, and I like it when the Roundabout-organs rattle for a moment,
but I'm glad it stays at that. Of the songs that follow, there isn't a single one I'd call weak. 's All pretty good.

― Gerard (Gerard), Friday, 18 August 2006 09:34 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

I am liking this one much more than Picaresque. It's like a mixture of the best bits from Castaways amd Her Majesty's. Meloy seems to have laid off the vocal histrionics - which is nice.

My copy of the album starts with Crane Wife 3 and ends with Sons and Daughters - not sure of the correct tracklisting - has anyone seen the cover yet?

― peter d (peter dee), Monday, 11 September 2006 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

It's a good album. Better than Picaresque. Probably not as good as Castaways or Her Majesty. I thought pfork's review was awful, though. It read like a puff piece, and a bunch of it made little sense.

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

Their worst by a fair margin.

― Simon H. (Simon H.), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 01:48 (nineteen years ago)

Profound!

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 02:49 (nineteen years ago)

It's great. Rock/prog suits this band better than I ever imagined it would. The secong song -- the 12 minute prog workout -- sounds like a mash up of Yes (e.g., ''Walkabout'') and Kansas (circa ''Point Of No Return'').

― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 8 October 2006 00:45 (nineteen years ago)

I hate this recent spate of ambitious indie pop. The Decemberists wear so thin, so quickly.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Sunday, 8 October 2006 23:47 (nineteen years ago)

Brooker writes: ''I hate this recent spate of ambitious indie pop.''

It's a mini-trend, at best. Look at some of last year's best, e.g., The New Pornographers, My Morning Jacket, Sufjan Stevens. On one level, I suppose it's ambitious. On another level, it's immediately accessible, catchy pop.

This year's best is a little more experimental, I suppose.

― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 9 October 2006 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

Is trying to sound like Jethro Tull and Yes (on one cut) experimental or ambitious?

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Monday, 9 October 2006 00:43 (nineteen years ago)

Weird, I hate the Decemberists on the whole, but lurve "the Mariner's Revenge Song". Guess I'm just a contrarian.

And there isn't a Yes song called "Walkabout". Geez.

― Bumblepuppy (Horbgorbling Slubberdegullion), Monday, 9 October 2006 00:51 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, yeah. It's called ''Roundabout,'' yes? My apologies.

― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 9 October 2006 01:32 (nineteen years ago)

I am sick to death of the Decemberists. I am tired of hearing about them. I have had enough. The piece on talk radio (NPR?) was as much as I could stand. Fuck the Decemberists.

― Bassment Jacks (Bimble...), Monday, 9 October 2006 01:34 (nineteen years ago)

Yes.

To both Daniel's question (sorry if I sounded harsh) and Bassment's rant.

― Bumblepuppy (Horbgorbling Slubberdegullion), Monday, 9 October 2006 01:47 (nineteen years ago)

Backlashesque

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Monday, 9 October 2006 03:23 (nineteen years ago)

hey, it's great! i didn't expect to dig it so much! the laura veirs duet, "yankee bayonet", is just fantastic and so pretty. i am really surprised and delighted by how well this new "rock" edge works. i mean, maybe after four or five listens i won't like it quite so much, but for now i'm thoroughly enjoying it. it seems less decemberists-y, somehow. at least, as much as "picaresque" was excessively verbose and all the usual things that get said about them.

"when the war came" partially lifts a melody from led zeppelin's "no quarter". did anyone else notice this?

― Emily B (Emily B), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 04:09 (nineteen years ago)

x-post That prog suite sounds to me like a cross between Yes and Genesis circa "Selling England by the Pound." In fact, I can imagine young Peter Gabriel singing many of these songs, which admittedly would beat Meloy's voice. At least to these ears there's some heart to the music, which bests the band's previous bouts of whimsy.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Wednesday, 18 October 2006 21:25 (nineteen years ago)

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