King Decemberist Colin Meloy's love for the heydays of British folk-rock has always served as the foundation on which he builds his crafty, idiosyncratic chamber pop, but on Hazards of Love he's taken that bedrock and built his own version of Stonehenge. A 17-song suite (think one continuous song with track ID's peppered throughout for sanity's sake) about a girl named Margaret, shapeshifters, forest queens, and fairytale treachery, Hazards of Love is ambitious, pretentious, obtuse, often impenetrable, and altogether pretty great. Harking back to the late-'60s/early-'70s offerings from bands like Pentangle, Horslips, ELP, Steeleye Span, and the Incredible String Band, it makes no apologies for its nerdy, prog rock musicality, and convoluted narrative. Meloy, who often cites Shirley Collins, Nic Jones, and Anne Briggs as influences -- Hazards is named after a Briggs' EP which featured no such song -- must have had a vast hard rock/power metal collection to draw from as well, as one can glean melodic cues and structures from Iron Maiden and Rush as easily as they can Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull. On a record with no obvious single (the first instance of the title track comes the closest), it's the album as a whole that needs to engage, and for the most part, the Decemberists have succeeded. The inclusion of guest vocalists Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond) and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), who bring some Little Queen-era Heart to the table, as well as bit parts from Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Rebecca Gates (Spinanes), and Robyn Hitchcock help keep the focus off Meloy's affected vocals, but it's the music that drives this beast into the forest. Producer Tucker Martine has beefed up the band's sound even more than he did with Christopher Walla on 2006's Crane Wife, channeling more reverb into the acoustics and a whole lot more brimstone into the electrics, resulting in what is easily the band's best sounding record to date. Hazards of Love won't convert anybody who already wrote the band off as overly precious bookworms with a Morrissey/Victorian ghost story fetish, but fans who have dutifully followed the Decemberists since their 2002 debut get to take home bragging rights this time around.
It’s been a while since a really solid concept album has been around. Sure a lot of bands use running themes throughout albums today, but you rarely see a full story told in an album. But if there is anyone who would do that it would be The Decemberists. Hazards of love, the fifth album [...]Related posts:The Decemberists’ The Rake Song + Hazards of Love Tracklist The Decemberists were one of
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The Decemberists Koolhaus in Toronto, Ontario on August 3, 2009 Full Photo Set (9 photos)Executing near perfectly, The Decemberists put on the kind of show that brought about a musical brain-rush that I can only get from something incredible. The concert was in support of their latest album, The Hazards Of Love, an album that has become one of favorite releases of 2009. As a result, their ap...
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Friday night, I took the trek from DC down to Richmond, VA to see The Decemberists at The National. The band has been touring for quite some time now promoting their relatively new album, "The Hazards of Love." It was a night of firsts--first time to travel more than a couple of hours to get to a venue, first time to see The Decemberists live, first time in The National. As such, there's a lot
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Last night at a sold out increadibly beautiful Fox Theater in downtown Oakland, The Decemberists proved once again that they are modern troubadours in every sense of the word.The first set was performed as an entire piece, taking their recently released "Hazards of Love" and turning it up a notch.For those who do not know, the 17 song expansive suite focuses on Margaret and her lover, William,...
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All aboard the good ship The Decemberists as Colin Meloy steers literate rock through uncharted waters with this 17 part rock opera.
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The Decemberists follow up the excellent Crane Wife with another album-long love story. How does 'The Hazards Of Love' stack up? Read on to find out.
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Damn those wiley Decemberists! Colin Meloy and his cronies just keep finding ways, against all odds, to extend the shelf-life of their, umm, ambitious song-cycle The Hazards of Love (TMT Review). This time, the big idea is to squeeze a little extra drama out of the tangled and vaguely literary web of lovers and fawns and rakes and forest queens and rivers and ghosts and whatever else, by perfor...
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I guess I intend to write something a little more in-depth, but for now, this is what was hot (besides the 92 degree weather) at Lolla '09.Kings of Leon - Fucking rocked! Best of show. Easily!The Decemberists - Made my list of bands to get acquainted withJane's Addiction - Kicked ass and didn't bother taking namesSnoop Dogg - Got the party startedSilversun Pickups - Proved that their ready fo...
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I encourage any of you rock/prog folks out there to listen to this concept CD. It is easily one of the best CDs this year. CLICK THE COVER TO HEAR THE CD. Just listened to them do this live again at Lollapalooza, and you have to hear it, if you have not yet.You can also enjoy it LIVE in the player below and download the concert from NPR at the link below.The Decemberists Live At SXSW"The Decemb...
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photo: Autumn DeWildeThe Decemberists go multimedia with a special show in Los Angeles, playing their album The Hazards of Love in sync with four animations by four different directors:On October 19, The Decemberists will unveil Here Come The Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, a special project that takes their ambitious and acclaimed song cycle to new heights for it’s final American perfor.
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Last night at a sold out increadibly beautiful Fox Theater in downtown Oakland, The Decemberists proved once again that they are modern troubadours in every sense of the word.The first set was performed as an entire piece, taking their recently released "Hazards of Love" and turning it up a notch.For those who do not know, the 17 song expansive suite focuses on Margaret and her lover, William,...
More >
'The Hazards Of Love' was perhaps The Decemberist's biggest release to date and one of the first songs we heard before it's March 09 release was 'The Rake's Song', a track that has now been given it's very own video.
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The Decemberists Koolhaus in Toronto, Ontario on August 3, 2009 Full Photo Set (9 photos)Executing near perfectly, The Decemberists put on the kind of show that brought about a musical brain-rush that I can only get from something incredible. The concert was in support of their latest album, The Hazards Of Love, an album that has become one of favorite releases of 2009. As a result, their ap...
More >
The Decemberists follow up the excellent Crane Wife with another album-long love story. How does 'The Hazards Of Love' stack up? Read on to find out.
More >
It’s been a while since a really solid concept album has been around. Sure a lot of bands use running themes throughout albums today, but you rarely see a full story told in an album. But if there is anyone who would do that it would be The Decemberists. Hazards of love, the fifth album [...]Related posts:The Decemberists’ The Rake Song + Hazards of Love Tracklist The Decemberists were one of
More >
Friday night, I took the trek from DC down to Richmond, VA to see The Decemberists at The National. The band has been touring for quite some time now promoting their relatively new album, "The Hazards of Love." It was a night of firsts--first time to travel more than a couple of hours to get to a venue, first time to see The Decemberists live, first time in The National. As such, there's a lot
More >
The Decemberists have announced plans to play their entire new album, 'Hazards of Love', at the forthcoming Treasure Island Festival. The band are set to play the San Francisco festival which runs from October 17-18 at Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay.The band will play the album in it's entirety on Sunday, October 18.The line-up for the two-day fest was recently released with Grizzly B...
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The Decemberists have teamed up with four filmmakers--Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott, Peter Sluszka and Santa Maria--to create an hour-long animation for their most recent album, The Hazards of Love. The band has officially released the trailer for their upcoming event, on October 19, where they will perform the entire piece synchronized with the animation, as well as an additional second set ...
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All aboard the good ship The Decemberists as Colin Meloy steers literate rock through uncharted waters with this 17 part rock opera.
More >
The Decemberists have launched their ambitious new album The Hazards of Love (Capitol Records) today March 17th with a weeklong exclusive sale of the digital album through the iTunes Store. The album, which NPR called an “epic adventure,” is also being released today as deluxe 180-gram gatefold vinyl through select...
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The Decemberists have some history here though - The Crane Wife was partly based on a Japanese folk tale while The Tain told the Irish legend of Cu Cuchlain and Queen. in fact, the Tain had all the failings of The Hazards of Love : the folky stylings mixed with 70s heavy rock don’t sit with the Decemberists' literate pop. Colin Meloy’s Shirley Collins covers EP and the recent singles series sh
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 "The Hazards of Love")
