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112 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Their Best? Probably., October 7, 2006
The Decemberists' fourth full-length album, and their first for a major record label, is, in my opinion, their best album to date. What's great about "The Crane Wife" is that it has a major record label sound without sacrificing the style that made The Decemberists the great, unique band that they are.
The album begins slowly, with the haunting acoustic ballad turned full-speed solemn sing-along, "The Crane Wife, Pt. 3." The song is classic Decemberists, but accessible enough that you'll undoubtedly find yourself singing "I will hang my head, hang my head low" with Colin, even if it's only your first time listening to the song. It's a great lead-off track, and really builds the momentum that lasts through most of the album. That momentum runs head-on into "The Island," a three-part 12 1/2 minute epic that instantly captivating and enjoyable.
"Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)" is one of my favorite tracks on the album, as it features a beautiful duet between Colin and Laura Veirs. Of course, when I say beautiful, I'm not speaking of an R&B/Whitney Houston type of duet. Despite what many will undoubtedly say of them, The Decemberists have not "sold out" on this album. They've simply refined their sound, and made it more pleasant, with the help of Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla, who serves as producer on this album. But I digress...
Moving along, the next two tracks on the album have a great chance of launching The Decemberists into levels of fame that they have not yet experienced. The first of these, "O Valencia!" is an upbeat, love song that features a nice Meloyian twist. Colin laments "O Valencia with your blood still warm on the ground, Valencia! And I swear to the stars I'll burn this whole city down!" It's initially a fun song, but after taking a look at the lyrics, you realize that it's actually quite sad. Regardless, it's fantastic. The next song, "The Perfect Crime No. 2" is by far my favorite track on the album. In it, Meloy discusses, as the tile suggests, "The Perfect Crime" over an almost funk-ish bassline. Then new Decemberist sound is in full-force here, and it's an absolute joy to listen to.
"When the War Came" is the next track, and it will blow you away with the sheer amount of energy that it forces out in its 5 minutes. Unlike most songs by The Decemberists, this one features an incredibly angry sounding electric guitar and equally as aggressive drumming. At the end of the song, they syncopate as Colin echoes forcefully "With all the grain of Babylon..." It is without a doubt the most angry song to come from the band, but it's also one of the best.
For classic Decemberists fans, "The Shankhill Butchers" will be a favorite. It's really the only time that the album dies down for an entire track, but it is still a really great song. Like almost all of the band's songs, it tells a story. In this case, it takes the form of an English murder ballad. If any song on the album could be considered a "shout out" to the band's longtime fans, its this one.
The album wraps up fairly nicely. "Summersong" once again picks things up a notch, but the real standout is "The Crane Wife, Pts. 1 & 2," which obviously tell the first two parts of the story of The Crane Wife. Pt. 1 is more of a celebration over the crane whom the narrator marries, while Pt. 2 laments his treatment of her. Each part is brilliant in its own right, but Pt. 2 stands out as the most beautiful part of the album and poignantly renders the last song on the album, "Sons & Daughters" negligible. It's a great track, and well suited as a closing song, but it's place as a follow-up to "The Crane Wife, Pt. 2" is a tough one.
Overall, I'd say that The Decemberists have really made the transition onto a major record label quite flawlessly. They have crafted an album that stands out as one of the best albums of the year and probably their own personal best. For Decemberists fans who are a bit worried about what kind of difference the leap has made, stop. The fantastic storytelling is still here, only with more heart, and Colin Meloy's unique form of sensationalist lyrics are still here as well. This is, after all, an album by The Decemberists. Only now, more people will know that. And I couldn't be happier!
Key Tracks:
1. "The Island"
2. "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)"
3. "O Valencia!"
4. "The Perfect Crime"
5. "The Crane Wife, Pts. 1 &2"
5 out of 5 Stars
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47 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The good "Wife", October 3, 2006
The Decemberists make that riskiest of leaps in "The Crane Wife" -- to a major label, away from Kill Rock Stars. Hopefully that will get this beloved indie band the attention they deserve.
But a major label jump doesn't matter if the end product isn't good. And the Decemberists' fourth full-length album not only preserves their melodious sea-chanty sound, but it is also probably the best work this band has ever done, topping their previous album "Picaresque." From start to finish, this music is warm and enchantingly imaginative.
"And under the boughs unbound/All clothed in a snowy shroud/She had no heart so hardened/All under the boughs unbound," Colin Meloy murmurs in the opening song. The wintry lyrics make a stark contrast to the strummy little tune, fleshed out with intermittent piano. It's catchy and melodious, but much in the way that their previous songs were.
It's a good song, and a solid introduction to a string of similarly good songs, like the folky "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)," rollicking acoustic marches, and dreamy nautical-summer ballads. The Decemberists also dabble a bit in rock in the middle of the album, like the fast-moving riffs of "Perfect Crime #2," before switching back to familiar territory.
The Decemberists started off being good, but rapidly ascended to indie-rock greatness as they grew into their sound and made it more robust. "The Crane Wife" is just the natural progression of that, and it's hard to see how anyone could not like these jolly, catchy songs, with the charming lyrics and poignant imagery. Well, maybe if you don't like the sea.
They take some musical risks as well, with two songs clocking in at over ten minutes apiece. One is a meditative ballad, and the other is a sprawling, solid experimental-folk song with lots of ringing strings and epic piano. But at its heart, "Crane Wife" is all about the solid, catchy folk melodies, made of acoustic guitar and bits of keyboard and piano as well. And, of course, the ol' reliable accordion, which gives it the feeling of sailors standing on a harbor, making music to pass the time.
Colin Meloy has the same odd, a-melodious voice, which becomes more endearing as the album goes on. His lyrics are probably the best aspect of the entire album -- Meloy has a knack for strange, fitting turns of phrase. "Folks bobbing in the blue of the bay/in deep, far beneath/all the dead sailors slowly slipping to sleep... and summer blows away/and quietly gets swallowed by a wave..."
"The Crane Wife" is the best album the Decemberists have done to date, and certainly promises that they will only be getting better. A must-buy for 2006.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Weird, but nice. 4.5 stars, February 11, 2007
I haven't heard any of the Decemberists' previous albums all the way through, so I'm not prepared to debate how The Crane Wife stacks up to any of them. What I can say, though, is that this is one enjoyably bizarre and quirky listen. These guys didn't leave anything on the field for their major-label debut--this is about as ambitious an album as you'll hear from a band with corporate backing. The band draws from an expansive range of seemingly disparate influences and incorporate all kinds of non-rock instrumentation (just check out the liner notes and see who plays what), and though not everything works equally well the overall result never fails to be distinctive or interesting. I've heard very few bands that could bring together so many different elements and make them all fit together into catchy, highly accessible songs. Their eclectic approach and occasionally daunting song lengths will probably prevent these guys from ever attaining "Indie Band Everybody Likes" status like the Shins, but it should be just the thing for those seeking something outside the indie-music norm.
For the most part, the album sees relatively straightforward, foot-tapping pop tunes splitting time with more spacious, epic balladry, all of it highlighted by Colin Meloy's emotive brogue and intricate arrangements underlain by the rock-solid drumming of John Moen. The highly poetic lyrics, which often seem taken from an anthology of 19th-century Irish literature, deal heavily with themes of love, loss, and misfortune, but with none of the triteness or sap that so frequently accompany such subjects.
Probably the best example of the band's musical mission is the second track, The Island-Come and See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel The Drowning, which actually manages to be as long and sprawling as its name suggests, with a twelve-minute running time that sees it move from infectious folk-rock to aggressive guitar riffage to a hard-charging, synth-backed climax that wouldn't sound out of place on a Yes album. The album's other centerpiece, the Crane Wife 1 & 2, similarly builds from a quiet beginning to a stirring midtempo gallop about halfway through, though it sort of runs out of steam in its slowed-down second half.
The rest of the album doesn't take aim at anything quite so grandiose as the two longest pieces but that's not to say The Crane Wife doesn't have plenty of other worthy material to offer. Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) is a disarmingly pretty duet that sees Meloy's vocals intertwining with the more ethereal voice of Laura Veirs, while the electronics-heavy The Perfect Crime boasts jagged, danceable rhythms worthy of The Talking Heads. And you've got to admire any band that would follow the dense, chugging metal of When the War Came with the spare, horn-accented folk of the eerily melancholy Shankill Butchers. And The Crane Wife 3 and Sons and Daughters bookend the album with the band's own brand of swinging baroque-pop goodness, providing an excellent introduction and summation to an album you should find hard not to like despite (or perhaps because of) its idiosyncratic sound.
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