In reviewing The Decemberists’ newest album, The King is Dead, it seems a popular path among critics to come out as a hater of the band’s epic 2009 rock opera, The Hazards of Love. Some have even gone as far as to see the simplicity of King – with its lack of an overarching theme and comparatively understated, American roots and bluegrass styling – as an apology for the bombast of Hazards.
Personally, listening to The King is Dead does nothing to change my opinion of The Hazards of Love, which I adore and consider a brilliant, brave concept album. Instead, it makes me think of Tarkio, the band that Meloy helmed before moving to Portland and founding The Decemberists. With its country-fried rhythms and simultaneously rich and stripped-down production, The King is Dead is like a bottle of wine from Tarkio’s vineyard, conditioned for several years and released when its flavors are most robust.
The collection features the expansive vocabulary that has endeared Meloy to so many English majors, wrapped in infectious hooks that have you returning to songs like “Calamity Song” and “Don’t Carry it All” over and over again. Appropriately, the quieter moments of The King is Dead call to mind earlier Decemberist gems: not surprisingly, the honky tonk “All Arise!” feels like a more well-rounded version of “As I Rise,” the throwaway track at the end of Her Majesty the Decemberists. The strongest effort on the album is its lead single, “Down by the Water.” Where Meloy used female voices to haunt you in Hazards, he uses them to compliment him here. The song’s harmonica hook will suck you in immediately.
As you listen to The King is Dead, don’t fall into the trappings of trying to figure out where Meloy is steering the band this time and why he’s doing it. Just let yourself get taken for a ride; I promise you’ll enjoy it.
**** of 5