Author Topic: The Decemberists (Read 28967 times)

LieLowTheWantedMan · « **Reply #210 on:** January 22, 2015, 06:28:18 PM »

Yeah the last two are definitely the worst IMO.

KevShmev · « **Reply #211 on:** January 22, 2015, 06:46:05 PM »

The album has only been out for two days and people are already rating it poorly?

I've listened once so far after getting it from iTunes last night (yay for getting a gift card for Christmas), but I liked it a lot. The songs at the beginning seemed really strong, and I liked that the country rock vibe that dominated the previous album didn't pop up nearly as much.

Nel · « **Reply #212 on:** January 22, 2015, 07:03:53 PM »

I haven't hear it myself but I've been seeing a lot of music sites around the net just shitting on it.

KevShmev · « **Reply #213 on:** January 22, 2015, 08:20:27 PM »

Okay, but what does that mean?

ariich · « **Reply #214 on:** January 23, 2015, 02:12:36 AM »

Quote from: LieLowTheWantedMan on January 22, 2015, 06:28:18 PM

Yeah the last two are definitely the worst IMO.

Er, no.

Jimmy, give The Crane Wife a try, you find that more exciting than their latest two albums.

Zantera · « **Reply #215 on:** January 23, 2015, 02:38:42 AM »

Thanks for the recommendations guys.

I know they dropped a live album fairly recently, and I was wondering if it's good? Maybe it sums up "the best" of their career?

Mladen · « **Reply #216 on:** January 23, 2015, 02:42:58 AM »

I'd recommend Picaresque if you're looking for their classic sound and The Crane wife for a more prog and experimental approach. Those are my favorites, along with their debut, which is insanely catchy for the most part.

There are definitely some songs on the new album that seem like filler and that I really don't see growing on me. It could have been shorter, but still, they probably wanted to give us more material, being that it has been four years since their last album.

ariich · « **Reply #217 on:** January 23, 2015, 02:52:18 AM »

I have a confession... I haven't heard any of their first 3 albums. I have everything from Crane Wife onwards, but that's it.

SoundscapeMN · « **Reply #218 on:** January 23, 2015, 12:26:04 PM »

Ariich, definitely check out The Tain and Picasreque.

Her Majesty and Castaways and Cutouts I would say are better than The King is Dead and What a Terrible/Beautiful World, but I guess I never got attached to them as much as TCW, Tain and Picaresque.

LieLowTheWantedMan · « **Reply #219 on:** January 23, 2015, 12:37:51 PM »

The Crane Wife and Picaresque are both their best by quite a margin. I'd give Picaresque a slight edge. But both amazing albums.

KevShmev · « **Reply #220 on:** January 23, 2015, 03:32:54 PM »

Quote from: LieLowTheWantedMan on January 23, 2015, 12:37:51 PM

The Crane Wife and Picaresque are both their best by quite a margin. I'd give Picaresque a slight edge. But both amazing albums.

This.

Castaways and Cutouts is pretty great as well, and The Hazards of Love is also most worthy.

Still digesting the new album...

KevShmev · « **Reply #221 on:** January 25, 2015, 06:20:12 AM »

So far, I like the new album, but I don't love it. The first four songs are all great, and I like The Wrong Year and Easy Come, Easy Go quite a bit, but quite a few of those songs later in the album have that "just kind of there" feeling.

12/17/12 is an instant turnoff with that shrilly harmonica at the beginning. I often hate when any artist utilizes the harmonica in that fashion. A good example of this is Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind, which is an otherwise nice song, but that harmonica after the choruses grates on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

Zantera · « **Reply #222 on:** January 25, 2015, 06:27:14 AM »

Lake Song is probably the big standout for me, with The Wrong Year being a close second favorite. Otherwise I agree the album starts off pretty good, and the majority of the better songs are on the first half. The second half feels more patchy and not as consistent. It's like the first half had a nice connection between the songs, and in the second half they throw in some songs that feels more unique and separate, but it results in the album kinda leaving the main sound to explore some other things, and some of them doesn't work.

Mladen · « **Reply #223 on:** January 25, 2015, 07:11:33 AM »

The Wrong year is a very sweet track indeed, it didn't hit me at first but I like it better now.

lordxizor · « **Reply #224 on:** January 25, 2015, 03:51:40 PM »

For what it's worth I like the new album a lot. Not as good as most of their other albums, but I'm enjoying it a lot.

I also recently listened to Her Majesty... for the first time. Didn't like that one much at all. Need to give it another listen or two though.

KevShmev · « **Reply #225 on:** January 25, 2015, 04:02:56 PM »

That one is okay. The first three or four songs are duds, and most of the rest of are just good songs. There isn't one song on there where I think, "Dang, this is great." I mean, I do like songs like I Was Meant for the Stage and The Chimbley Sweep a lot, but they aren't great.

Mladen · « **Reply #226 on:** January 26, 2015, 03:55:46 AM »

I think The Bachelor and the bride, Shanty for the Arethusa and The Chimbley sweep are amazing. The rest of the songs rank from good to average, and it's probably my 2nd least favorite album of theirs overall.

KevShmev · « **Reply #227 on:** January 26, 2015, 06:57:59 PM »

I like all three of those quite a bit. I guess, for me, the album kicking off with a four-song run that is pretty blah makes it hard for me to like it more than most of the others.

73109 · « **Reply #228 on:** January 26, 2015, 07:38:22 PM »

I'm that ass that likes the pop turn these guys are going through. I only know Picaresque and this album and a few other few songs (I'm recently getting into them), but I like this a lot more.

Easy Come, Easy Go is killer.

lordxizor · « **Reply #229 on:** January 31, 2015, 08:26:31 AM »

All right... here's my album rankings as of right now. I admittedly need to listen to a few of the older albums a couple more times. Doesn't include any of the various EPs they've put out since I haven't heard most of them.

Picaresque
The Crane Wife
The King is Dead
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
The Hazards of Love
Castaways and Cutouts
Her Majesty The Decemberists

ariich · « **Reply #230 on:** January 31, 2015, 03:21:54 PM »

Quote from: lordxizor on January 31, 2015, 08:26:31 AM

Picaresque
The Crane Wife
The King is Dead
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
The Hazards of Love
Castaways and Cutouts
Her Majesty The Decemberists

I've only heard the four bolded ones, but that's my exact order for those. I'm therefore very excited to check out Picaresque.

SoundscapeMN · « **Reply #231 on:** February 01, 2015, 10:41:56 AM »

If I had to rank their records:

The Crane Wife
Picaresque
The Tain
Castaways and Cutouts
Her Majesty
The Hazards of Love
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
5 Songs
The King is Dead

KevShmev · « **Reply #232 on:** May 30, 2015, 10:54:09 PM »

Such a fun live band. Had a blast seeing them again tonight.

KevShmev · « **Reply #233 on:** May 31, 2015, 07:40:28 AM »

For those interested, the set list was:

The Singer Addresses His Audience
Calvary Captain
Down by the Water
Hank Eat Your Oatmeal / Calamity Song
The Engine Driver
Philomena
The Wrong Year
Make You Better
Los Angeles, I'm Yours
Carolina Low
A Bower Scene (which set.list.fm does not have listed, but I was there; they played it)
Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
The Rake's Song
16 Military Wives
The Crane Wife 1 & 2
The Crane Wife 3
A Beginning Song

Encore:
12/17/12
The Mariner's Revenge Song

Mladen · « **Reply #234 on:** May 31, 2015, 07:54:03 AM »

That's a solid set list, it's gotta be great to see all three parts of The Crane Wife played back to back. There are a couple of slightly disappointing choices from the new album such as Carolina Low and 12/17/12, but I guess they need to play more recent tunes.

Another problem I personally have with The Decemberists shows is that they always close with The Mariner - an obvious fan favorite, but a track that I never really cared for. It would probably be anti-climatic for me to attend their show and see them close it with one of my lesser favorite songs. Although that outro at least must be fun.

KevShmev · « **Reply #235 on:** May 31, 2015, 08:00:49 AM »

The whole thing is fun as hell live. Mariner's Revenge Song, The Rake's Song and 16 Military Wives are the three songs that should be played at EVERY show the band ever does. Crowds go bananas for all three.

Los Angeles, I'm Yours was the "Woah, I did not see this coming" choice of the night.

I can do without any song that features that shrilly harmonica (12-17-12 and Down by the Water). 12-17-12 is an odd choice for the first encore, but it's pretty short, so I was okay with it. Carolina Low I am not overly wild about, but it was another short one. Looking at setlist.fm, it looks like The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid is getting played a lot this year, and our show was one of the rare ones that didn't get it, so that is kind of an after-the-fact bummer, but the show was so much fun that I cannot complain.

KevShmev · « **Reply #236 on:** June 03, 2015, 04:59:14 PM »

Upon further review, the new album is good, but it's just missing that something. I cannot pin point what it is, but it reminds me of Her Majesty the Decemberists in that it is enjoyable from start to finish, and has a few songs I would say are highly enjoyable, but just doesn't have anything I would call great, and it lacks what I call the "replayability factor."

But hey, I would still say four of their seven full length albums are great (Castaways, Picaresque, Crane Wife and Hazards), so having a few albums that are merely good ain't so bad.

SoundscapeMN · « **Reply #237 on:** May 11, 2017, 09:02:49 AM »

bump.

Offa Rex: new collaboration between The Decemberists and singer Olivia Chaney while not dramatically different, has some intrigue per just this cover of "The Queen of Hearts" with the female vocals and the harpsichord.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPSO-u4fdB0

https://www.avclub.com/article/decemberists-unveil-new-folk-side-project-offa-rex-254844

SoundscapeMN · « **Reply #238 on:** May 11, 2017, 09:13:40 AM »

Debut album "The Queen of Hearts" from Offa Rex released on July 7th.

Preorder:
https://www.nonesuch.com/albums/the-queen-of-hearts

MirrorMask · « **Reply #239 on:** May 26, 2017, 09:38:16 AM »

The name of the band intrigued me, I've checked some songs here and there on YouTube and listened to the Picaresque album. So far my interest is taked by We Both Go Down Together and especially The Mariner's Revenge Song, that is a less twisted, gory and (non) metal version of Avenged Sevenfold's A Little Piece of Heavens when it comes to dark stories of murder and revenge. Lovely eerie tune.

KevShmev · « **Reply #240 on:** May 26, 2017, 04:56:51 PM »

I love that song. I like this band a ton and will always check out anything they do as a band. Picaresque and The Crane Wife remain their best albums, IMO.

SoundscapeMN · « **Reply #241 on:** June 01, 2017, 11:24:15 AM »

Offa Rex - Blackleg Miner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAVKy9WUzeU

KevShmev · « **Reply #242 on:** January 17, 2018, 07:46:49 PM »

New album in March and a tour right after.

SoundscapeMN · « **Reply #243 on:** January 17, 2018, 08:27:18 PM »

yep.

"I'll Be Your Girl" on March 16th.

1st single "Severed"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksTFj6L0mao

soupytwist · « **Reply #244 on:** January 18, 2018, 07:53:01 AM »

Love this band. Looking at though this thread I do agree the last album was the weakest (not bad, just average), hopefully this new album will be a return to form.

Best band I've ever seen live too. Colin is a real funny guy, great with the crowd, tons of interaction and stories - and the rest of the band play along perfectly.

News: Track-by-track video for Untethered Angel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Co1_h0GtAw

Author Topic: The Decemberists (Read 28967 times)