A 3 x LP live compilation of favourites from their catalogue recorded live on their 2011 North American tour. Colin Meloy’s occasional between song interjections feel somewhat awkward although the explanation of the worst song he ever wrote (see below) is amusing…that’s all really…

Dracula’s Daughter/O Valencia! - https://youtu.be/YI1i-8hMv1c

We reach album number 100 in this meander through my collection which is quite a milestone. I really thought we’d be further on than the letter D by #100. 

“The King Is Dead” is the album that broke The Decemberists to a wider audience. “Down By The Water”, released as a single toward the end of 2010, reached number 33 in the US Rock charts. NPR (National Public Radio) in the US nominated it as one of the top 100 songs of 2011 and it was nominated for both Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song at the Grammy’s in 2012. Stylistically it sails very close to REM, Colin Meloy has said it "started out as more of a paean to R.E.M. than I think any of us really wanted it to be" and REM’s Peter Buck does play on the song plus two others on the album ("Don't Carry It All" and "Calamity Song”).

This is NOT however an REM tribute album, it is most certainly a Decemberists record, and a very, very, very good one. The sound has shifted for “The King Is Dead”. It’s not as overtly Brit-folksy as on previous albums and the Prog proclivities are kept well in check. It’s a much more American folk based album that demonstrates more alliance with Americana and, OK I’ll say it again, REM. There’s no chaff in here either, 10 songs, no filler, a couple of what qualify as rockers (in as much as the Decemberists can rock) and some of Colin Meloy’s very best acoustic ballads.

If you think back to when I told you about how I started with The Decemberists you’ll maybe recall the prompt was hearing a friend at an open mic night play “Don’t Carry It All” and here it is, track 1 side 1. If acoustic guitars can hammer in at the start then these acoustic guitars do just that in tandem with a wailing Harmonica and a song about community collaboration and the coming of spring. “Calamity Song” and “Down By the Water” are the closest we get to prime REM and the latter includes the delicious lyric “All dolled up in gabardine, The lash-flashing Leda Of Pier Nineteen” (where Leda sounds like leader but is actually a mythical Spartan Queen). The two seasonal songs “January Hymn” and “June Hymn” are beautiful acoustic ballads with “June Hymn” being one of my very favourite Decemberists songs. We also have a song about the futility of war and a hillbilly hoedown in “Rox In The Box”. Final song “Dear Avery” see guitarist Chris Funk let loose on pedal steel to wonderful effect.

We do need to make mention of some dictionary/encyclodedia moments on “The King Is Dead”…Trillium is a group of flowering plants including toadshade, birthroot, and wood lily; there is mention of Hetty Green once known as the Queen of Wall Street; Ambien, a prescription sleeping pill; and my favourite Panoply, being an impressive or extensive collection…educational as ever.

The longform storytelling songs have been ditched for this album, it’s a very tight, concise and confident  record of American folk/pop. Alongside “The Crane Wife” and “Picaresque” this is a great starting point for a Decemberists newbie.

June Hymn - https://youtu.be/EnP5hRYp6uI

If I had to pick a favourite Decemberists album, after much thought and rumination I would very likely choose “The Hazards Of Love”. It was the last of their albums available at the time that I got to hear. A chap walked into the shop and asked if I wanted a pile of CD’s that he had. I don’t usually buy CD’s but as he was offering them for nothing I couldn’t say no. This album was among them. Now, I’d read about it on various forums and such and the general consensus seemed to be that it was most fans least favourite record of theirs. It’s an opera you see which obviously involves a storyline and repeating themes and didn’t seem to be what most fans of the band wanted. So I gave it a spin and after just one run through I was convinced it was an absolute work of freakin’ genius ! I think I left that CD on repeat all day, soaking it up. 

The story goes like this…while riding through the forest Margaret comes across an injured fawn. She stops to help it and it then turns into a young man, William. They “get it on” and sometime thereafter Margaret realises she is pregnant. She rushes to the forest where William receives the news and proclaims his love for her. We then are introduced to William’s disapproving Mother, the Forest Queen (end of Act 1).

William begs his mother to let him be with Margaret but the Queen accuses him of being ungrateful reminding him that she rescued him from the human world and made him immortal. Finally the Queen agrees to allow William one night as a mortal to be with Margaret but after that she will reclaim him forever (end of Act 2).

We now meet The Rake, a mon with no remorse over the death of his young bride in childbirth and then murdering his children to free him from that burden. He kidnaps Margaret and the Queen invites him to violate Margaret and assists his escape from William by parting the waters of the river Annan. William follows but is unable to cross the river until he offers his life in exchange for safe passage. The Rake goads William and threatens Margaret but before he can do her any harm the ghosts of his murdered children appear to exact their revenge. William and Margaret are reunited and vow to remain together forever by drowning themselves (we’re here again) in the river while he is still mortal. As they sink into the river, William and Margaret proclaim their love for each other, singing that, in death, "These hazards of love, never more will trouble us” (The End !)

Phew…a bit heavy yeah…but all this is wrapped up in the most astonishing set of songs ranging from folk to country to rock and of course it gets Proggy in places. Themes repeat throughout introducing us to different characters (The Queens theme is almost Heavy Metal). The lyrics tell the story perfectly and new voices are introduced to the Decemberists mix to represent different characters (Becky Stark voices Margaret, Shara Worden sings The Forest Queen, Clara Ell, Joseph Ell and Natalie Briare are The Rake’s murdered children), it’s a bloody marvel I tells ya.

By the time you reach the final song, "The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)”, you’ve been taken on a cinematic journey purely by listening to music, and oh that final song is so beautiful. 

They’d toyed with this long, storytelling format with “The Tain” EP and “The Island…” from “Picaresque” but “The Hazards Of Love” is its full culmination. It is exactly 1 hour long. If you are going to dive in put aside an hour when you have to do nothing else, start it and don’t stop ’til the end, this should be a one hit deal. This may sound like sacrilege as the point of this exercise is to play though all my records but it’s honestly an album best listened to on CD or as a download/stream as then you don’t get any interruptions. Reaching the end of each side and having to turn it over breaks the flow of the storyline and it deserves to be heard uninterrupted.

I think I’ve played this album at least once a week (some days multiple times) since I first heard it 5 or 6 years ago. I’m listening to a live version of it as I am typing this (oh how I wish I’d got to see them play this live). I absolutely adore it and you really should give it a try.

The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) - https://youtu.be/l-io-hWsAIA