The Auditory

The Decemberists’ sixth studio album, The King Is Dead, is due out on January 18th.  However, NPR has been gracious enough to give us all a sneak peek! 

Following up 2009’s Hazards of Love, TKID is much mellower, in comparison. The songs on TKID have less of a rock sound than the ones on Hazard—instead, they take on a folk/bluegrass vibe, calling to mind earlier Decemberists albums such as Picaresque and Her Majesty.

The songs on TKID are also reminiscent of Meloy’s work with Tarkio—the band he formed in college, before he moved to Portland and formed the Decemberists.  With Tarkio, Meloy wrote simpler “alternative country” songs, which may have been easier to swallow for the average listener.  Surprisingly, Meloy never found much success with Tarkio, until after he found success with the Decemberists—which brought more attention his previous work.

It is nice to hear Meloy returning to his folk roots.  Hazards of Love was an album whose songs all followed in the direction of the Decemberists’ more alternative songs, such as “The Infanta” or “When The War Came”.  It was a surprising release since, generally, the band’s albums are comprised of mostly folk/country tracks, with a sprinkling of alternative/rock songs.  With TKID, the songs all err on the side of the band’s previously released folk ballads such as “Red Right Ankle” and “On The Bus Mall”.  In this way, the two recent releases represent two extremes, in terms of genre; aside from Meloy’s distinctive voice, there’s not much of an indication that they belong to the same band.

I’ve always seen Meloy as being more a folk singer than an alternative artist—his lyrics are narrative-based, and always tell distinctive, strong stories about intriguing characters—calling to mind the lyrics of early folk artists such as Woody and Arlo Guthrie, and by default, Bob Dylan.    While Hazards did not disappoint in this sense, it felt a bit like Meloy was trying too hard to conform to the idea of “rock opera” or “concept album”.  There is more of a sense of freedom that comes with the songs on TKID—their style feels less forced, and therefore, the album is brighter and much easier to listen to. Hopefully, this extreme change in style will lead the band, and Meloy, to a permanent return to the sound that makes the Decemberists’ early albums the masterpieces that they are.

-Leah Creary