Decemberists’ Colin Meloy has spent his career thumbing his nose at the conventions of independent rock. He’s recorded a tribute to the old Irish song-cycle An Táin; his lyrics loftily allude to Shakespearean prose and blank verse; the band’s most popular album, 2007’s The Crane Wife, was informed by Japanese folk music and contains a jaunty song about loyalist deathsquad, the Shankhill Butchers.
Alas, overwrought ambition appeared to get the better of him on 2009’s overcooked The Hazards Of Love, a sticky morass of conceptual hooey that sapped this listener’s will power, giving nothing back in return. Evidently Meloy has paid heed to his critics who dismissed the record as Decemberists ‘nuke the fridge’ moment. For the follow-up, he’s stripped things radically down, moving towards a straight-forward country rock sound whilst leaving the florid world music references at the studio door.
Mostly this is a good thing. Where previously Decemberists had a fatal weakness for epileptic meandering, here the songs are tightly compacted and, even when someone is abusing bag-pipes in the background, proceed along straightforward verse/chorus patterns.
In interviews Meloy has cited R.E.M. as an influence, which may be why he invited fellow Pacific northwest resident Peter Buck to cameo on three songs, including the ‘Heart of Gold-ish ‘Calamity Song’ and ‘Don’t Carry It All’. There’s also a duet with Gillian Welch on the Springsteen-esque, ‘Down By The Water’. It’s one of many moments on The King Is Dead in which Meloy embraces the Great American Songbook with a fervor that will shock anyone familiar with the Decemberists earlier records.
Key track: ‘Down By The River’