The Decemberists
The Crane Wife
Rating: 4/5
Tracks to download: “Yankee Bayonet,” “The Crane Wife 1 and 2,” “Sons and Daughters”
For fans of: Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal, Belle & Sebastian
I never thought The Decemberists would sound like Kansas. But I reached the 6:30 mark of the second track of “The Crane Wife,” the epic “The Island, Come and See, The Landlord’s Daughter, You’ll Not Feel the Drowning” (yes, that’s actually the name of the song), and found Colin Meloy and company imitating the prog-rock synth of Kansas’s “Journey to Mariabronn.”
“The Crane Wife,” The Decemberists’ first major label offering, is actually much more accessible than its previous albums. In tracks like “When the War Came” and the aforementioned “The Island.” the band rocks harder than ever before. Meloy still wails his vivid lyrics of soldiering and sailing, except this time he’s accompanied not by accordion, but by surprisingly crunchy guitar.
Overall, the guitar work feels cleaner and the accompaniment better planned. There’s more focus on the instrumentals, and Meloy’s trademark quasi-British vocals are less prominent than before. Yet it’s not really better or worse, just different. Throughout the album The Decemberists feel out new directions.
But don’t think they’ve abandoned their roots. “Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)” is a fantastic folk duet of death and love, and “Sons and Daughters,” the album’s final song, is just like The Decemberists of old.
Unfortunately, the album’s worst track, “The Perfect Crime 2,” is placed right in the middle. Weirdly groovy, it just doesn’t feel like it belongs. This is the biggest problem “The Crane Wife” faces: the lack of unity throughout the album. As a whole it’s not nearly as cohesive as The Decemberists’ previous CD, the excellent “Picaresque.”
Without this cohesion, “The Crane Wife” feels a little bit hollow. That’s a shame, because there’s a lot of good stuff here. “The Crane Wife” is less inhibited than its first three LPs, less afraid to venture outside the land of ballads and sea shanties.
Actually, that’s the one thing I really missed this time. The Decemberists shouldn’t be afraid to change: just don’t leave the sea shanties behind.