Album Review: The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
The Decemberists - The King is DeadIt is always a joy when you find a record by a hitherto unknown (at least to you) band that you really enjoy. I'm lucky to say that I have had this experience this morning with The King Is Dead, the sixth album from the Decemberists.
A simple collection of guitar based tunes, The King is Dead is melodic and pretty. Sounding an awful lot like REM in places - in a good way, I would hastily add - it is a very accessible, very likeable record. The two seasonal anthems - January Hymn and June Hymn - are highlights, as is the great opening track Don't Carry It All which starts with a superb mid 1970s Springsteen-esque harminoca riff.
The Decemberists are described on Wikipedia as 'indie folk rock', which seems like a reasonable assessment. There's country guitar, some violin and the odd bit of harmonica here, all combined to make an album which is extremely rich and varied. Whilst it hasn't made me want to explore the band's other work (I gather that some of it is quite, er, 'challenging') I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed The King is Dead. Highly recommended.
delivered by LB at 1:24 PM
2 Discussions:
Ah, excellent. This lot are on my "to do" list and have been for some time. I have a couple of bits of theirs, but not any albums. Maybe this is the place to start. Ta for the review.
I can highly recommend "The Crane Wife" as a good album to dig a little deeper into The Decemberists.
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