By David Appelt
If somehow you have never heard of The Decemberists, you have been missing out for a while. The group has been making waves since 2001 and if you give their music a listen you will see why. They just might be the most quintessential indie rock band in existence. If you care for Portland, thoughtful lyrics, rock-n-roll, accordions, organs and upright basses you have found your holy grail. If you didn’t know you cared for those things, then you are about to learn how much you love them in a big way.
Their newest album released on January 20th of 2015. Titled What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, it’s probably the best album of the year so far (yes, I realize how young this year is, but the claim is true nonetheless). At the risk of using the most recently clichéd term in art, the project opens with a “meta” song to end all “meta” songs. “The Singer Addresses His Audience,” is the band ironically and kindly telling the audience how much their faithfulness to the band means, and also explains parts of the less fun parts of the music industry. The song starts simple enough, then eventually builds into the rest of the album. From there, their typical sound takes over. True to its title, the album is full of dichotomy. Some songs are upbeat, some laid back. Some encouraging, some sobering. All of them, however, encourage the listener to look and live on both sides of life. The good and the bad.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb8oUbMrydk[/youtube]In all, the album is consistent and very well constructed. The first two songs give you the first glimpse of the album’s dichotomy (“The Singer…” giving you a sober mood, while “Calvary Captain” gives you a much more uplifted feeling.) The mood flips back and forth over and over again. “Make You Better” (track four) is the first single off of the album (and it has a music video complete with white overalls, fake German accents and appearance from Nick Offerman, which you should check out). The Decemberists, whether creating a sad or happy song, have found the essence of realism. Meaning, even the depressing tunes have plenty of positive lyrics, and the positive songs have plenty of lyrics that are realistic over romantic. This song is their most radio-ready, and is probably their most typical indie rock sound. However, the gems of this album for me were the ones that are less likely to ever see the light of radio play. These tracks are the ones where the band dives deep into a folk/blues sound, giving you all the soul you would expect from an album entitled What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World. These songs, like Till the Water’s All Long Gone, Carolina Low and Better Not Wake the Baby, are perhaps my favorite on the album.
In all honesty, this album is extremely well paced and each song throws you right into the next. There are few albums crafted today so well that you can go from one song to the next and never feel like you skipped a beat for 14 straight tracks, but that’s exactly what The Decemberists have done. Personally, I could enjoy more of their bluesy sound, but when every song is this level of quality, it is hard to complain too much.
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