The Decemberists’ The Crane Wife

My first post in this blog was a long rant about all the bad albums that came out last year. While I stand by the claim that 2006 was a bad year for music, there were a few exceptions. I was planning on writing about Forgive Durden tonight, but I was walking home from work a few minutes ago with my iPod on suffle, and a song from the most recent Decemberists’ CD came on. It reminded me how much I love their new CD, and I decided to save Forgive Durden for another time, and talk about The Crane Wife.

The Decemberists (click here to view their website) are no longer the relatively-obscure band that they were when they released their first three CDs. (They’ve become so mainstream that some of their songs are even played in Starbucks.) Their first three CDS (Castaways and Cutouts, Her Majesty the Decemberists, and Picaresque) were released on the small, independent label Kill Rock Stars, but The Crane Wife was released on Capitol Records, making it their first major-label album. But for those who still don’t know who the Decemberists are, I can’t think of a more fitting description than Stephen Colbert’s, who called the band an example of “hyper-literate prog rock.”

The two things I appreciate most about the Decemberists are their amazing vocabulay (notable on The Crane Wife is the inclusion of the word ‘dirigible’) and the subject matter of their songs. In this second category, The Crane Wife may not have quite lived up to the other albums, but the songs did contain some interesting plot lines. The Crane Wife, more than their other albums, has certain overriding themes that reappear. The title comes from multiple tracks based around the old Japanese folktale about a man who falls in love with a crane who has changed into a woman. The theme of war is also more prevelent on this CD than on previous ones.

Although there are certain aspects of this album that are not quite perfect (some of the plot lines of the songs are a bit stale- like “O Valencia!”, which basically retells West Side Story) it nevertheless is an amazing addition to the esteemed repitoire of the Decemberists. It compliments their other offerings well. There is even a song included on The Crane Wife (“The Perfect Crime”) that finishes the story started in “Bagman’s Gambit”. In a year of disappointing music, I am happy to report that I can still count on the Decemberists to release an amazing and very satisfying album.