Ramblin’Where to beginA taste of summer on your peppery skinIf I didn’t have such pressing responsibilities like a job and a husband and uh, a life wherein I’m not incarcerated on a gross misdemeanor charge of harassment, I would totally take up the profession of Colin Meloy’s personal stalker.Seriously though, my love for Colin and The Decemberists grows by leaps and bounds with every day that passes, and so I fully admit that I was already in love with The Crane Wife even before I had heard the first note.All this crap being thrown around about Colin ‘selling out’ and how TCW doesn’t have the same depth and gritty edge now that they are recording for ‘The Big Bad Industry’ is a whole lot of elitist snobbish piffle, IMHO.This album is the shiznit. The Perfect Crime 2 takes me back to the days of my childhood, sitting around with my parents and listening to Steely Dan while they drank cheap beer and watched the Chicago Cubs game on our 13” RCA television.Throw O Valencia on your play list and bask in the tingly sensation as it flows with precision and grace along with tracks such as Shiny and The Sporting Life. Add in the fact that The Crane Wife 3 mixes with the tracks that you know and love from Castaways And Cutouts and Picaresque like a silky chocolate mousse blends into a well crafted buttercream, and you have a recipe for a rush that’s comparable to having the naughty sex in a dressing room of Lord & Taylor.When October 3rd finally rolls around, I will be in line at Borders with my four or five copies of The Crane Wife clutched in my giddy little paws. One will be for me, one for my folks, and the rest as gifties for some Very Special Friends. The Decemberists have rocked my socks ever since my fellow Mogger, Aytch, first gave me a mix CD containing Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect and Red Right Ankle, and they continue to do so with The Crane Wife.Rock the fuck on Colin; you are the cat’s pajamas as far as this Mog girl is concerned.