The Decemberists' the King is Dead Album Review

Released January 18, 2011, The King is Dead is the sixth offering from Portland's The Decemberists (named for a nineteenth century band of Russian army rebels). The album features guest jangle guitarist Peter Buck (REM) and vocalist Gillian Welch, who, to the surprised delight of this listener, appears on not one but seven of the albums ten tracks.

Possibly taking a lot of cues from Welch's country folk style, The King is Dead has a definite country feel to it (especially heard on All Arise!), leaning heavily in some cases (Rox in the Box) to an Irish influence. However, despite The Decemberists' holiday in the country, the lyrics of The King is Dead, songs like Don't Carry it All, still tell the stories of the near desolate working class that we've all come to know so well. While growth and improvement are important, it is also important that your new songs find a comfortable place among your fans' old favorites and The King is Dead does that well, while still carving out its own place in the musical universe.

While fans are most accustomed to the story songs, the songs that lead us on a journey, it is this writer's opinion that the more introspective tracks - Dear Avery, This is Why We Fight - will be met with the same appreciation as the Rox in the Box story of life at sea.

Don't Carry it All (B) - "Let the yolk fall from our shoulders/Don't carry it all, don't carry it all/We are all our hands and holders/Beneath this bold and brilliant sun/And this I swear to all." With a steady drum beat and an harmonica opening a'la John Popper, Don't Carry it All could set some feet to dancing without too much persuasion.

Calamity Song (B-) - The jury is still out on the strong recollection I have of O Valencia! listening to this track. The similarities are almost distracting, however the story told in Calamity Song is vastly different; no mafia bosses in this one, just angels, Panamanian children and a war of the end-times. Although, that alone draws me, preying on my personal strange fascination with religious prophecy.

Rise to Me (A) - When I think "The Decemberists," I think "melancholy songs to be sad to." Rise to Me is one of those songs. Probably what I could call an early favorite from this album, it has easily taken a place next to my Decemberists favorites such as California One Youth and Beauty Brigade, The Bachelor and the Bride and To My One True Love (Lost at Sea)...Especially To My Own True Love (Lost at Sea).

Rox in the Box (B+) - Another toe tapper, for lack of a more accurate description. Rox in the Box has the feel of an old sea chantey (with minor chord prophecies of doom like "If you ever make it to ten, you'll never make it again"), while still being at home in a pub or on maybe on the radio.

Down By the Water (A) - Definitely drawn in by the harmonies between Meloy and Welch on the repeated line "Down by the water and down by the old main drag." The lyrics are dark, the harmonies are dazzling, the rhythms are clever. If Rise to Me is not my favorite, Down By the Water may well be.

All Arise! (B) - As much as it kind of hurts my heart to put this thought out into the world, with an opening line like "Baby wants a new spin, Baby wants a broken heart," All Arise! could spin its way into the hands of a country bar DJ and be perfectly at home there and I don't hate that it could. I can already see the boots and buckles twirling each other around a hard wood dance floor.

This is Why We Fight (B-) - While the lyrics, for the most part, paint a picture of war, of battle lines and infantry men, the story is really that of a couple falling apart. "This is why, this is why we fight. This is why we lie awake at night." The trademark melancholy is strong in this track as well.

And with the "just plain average" C's given to the three tracks that didn't get a mention, that earns The Decemberists' sixth album The King is Dead an average overall B-. Definitely one I would recommend adding to your collection, whether you are an old Decemberists fan or just looking for something new and catchy but still mellow. Download the mp3 album here.