The King is Dead

I've listened to The Decemberists latest album The King is Dead several times now and find that it's been growing on me each time. What at first I mistook for a return to a pre Crane Wife sound has actually turned out to be something else. Certainly the foibles of The Crane Wife are not to be found here much in the same way as they were absent from 2008's The Hazards of Love, but there is something else going on here as well, something new, but familiar.

Much had been said about this album before it released about the band moving to a more stripped down sound, but in comparison to the intricacy of The Hazards of Love almost anything else by The Decemberists might be considered "stripped down". Still there is a sense of a return to basics here, maybe not so much in the music (this is very much a multi-instrument album), but perhaps in the presentation of the album itself. I think what's struck me most about the album however is a certain maturity in the songs.

The Decemberists have always been a band with it's tongue set firmly in their collective cheeks much of the time, whether singing songs about whoring mothers, whalers, or chimney sweeps. While it is very much the aesthetic of the band and certainly within Colin Meloy's purview to be writing about subjects that would have been considered fodder for pop music standards in the early 1900's, there is still a certain silliness that came with earlier Decemberists releases. With The King is Dead I feel as if they've momentarily shirked the silliness for a bit of folksy maturity. This is not to say that this is an overly serious album and it's obvious they're still having fun, but it's almost as if they've taken a break from the cheekiness of the past to write and play an album of folk rock standards.

Personally I find the end result to be just as satisfying as any of their other albums, but somehow much more accessible. The Decemberists have very much been a band of geeks for geeks, with SAT words aplenty and subjects only an English major could love. And while The King is Dead certainly feels like a Decemberists album, it's the one you'll probably let your friends listen to first before unleashing the awesome power of The Whaler's Revenge Song.  With this band however, one can't help but assume this is merely a rest stop on the way to bigger, better, and perhaps sillier/geekier things to come.