Ask Colin Meloy about the reference points for the fifth album by his Portland, Ore.-based chamber-pop band and he'll cite a host of obscure folk-rock inspirations from the '60s (among them Nic Jones, Shirley Collins and Anne Briggs, whose 1966 EP inspired the title of this disc). But the truth is that the Decemberists have spent much of their career trying to make a better concept album/rock opera/song cycle than Jethro Tull's 1972 classic "Thick as a Brick," and at last they have succeeded.
As the many song fragments here seamlessly flow together in a delicious, delirious swirl of baroque melodrama, '70s analog synthesizers, elegiac heavy-metal guitars and gorgeous, timeless melodies, Meloy, his bandmates and a roster of guest voices including Robyn Hitchcock, Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond), Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) spin an enchanting tale of a woman named Margaret hassled by a demonic animal, a forest queen and a villainous rake (among others) while simply trying to treasure true love with her beau, William.
Yes, it's supremely silly, but the Decemberists know that. More importantly, they know that we know that, and they invite us to laugh along with one witty lyrical bon mot after another while enjoying the bounty of hooks and deft melodic turns on standout tracks such as "The Rake's Song," "The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing," "The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid" and the title track (though honestly, the disc is best enjoyed as a whole, in classic concept-album fashion).
With sales of their last album "The Crane's Wife" (2006) edging toward 300,000 and a sold-out show last summer at Millennium Park among their accomplishments, the Decemberists have firmly established themselves as one of the most creative forces in modern rock today. It's time for them to finally stop worrying and admit they love the Tull, because Ian Anderson can only wish he was making music this strong today.
Can't join with you in that sentiment Jim, I still consider Thick and Songs From The Wood to be the best records of their kind, though stiffer challenges have come from the likes of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and Richard Thompson than the Decemberists. However I know I am in a great minority who consider Ian Anderson to be as talented a mind as rock has produced, and utterly unfazed by what is in or out of style, not sure he is even aware, but Tull's music is always different, most folks to the extent they know them at all know 69-74, and most nothing or 2 tracks from Aqualung, you know the ones. Why XRT has completely abandoned even early Tull in the last 10 yrs is a mystery to me, Tull was nearly the house band in the first year or 2 of XRT, and its predecessor WGLD. Now with old punks like Johnny Rotten and the Ramones "admitting" to being Tull fans, and people like Nick Cave and the Decemberists saying they quite like them, will it be cool to like Tull for the first time since 72? I dearly hope not, don't know where those hands have been, but i do know the mouths have been kissing the asses of the New York Dolls, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Tupac and whatever other flavors I have forgotten. Even for people who do not like Tull,(usually haven't listened to anything in the past 35 years) nearly everybody, I still hold there, for better or worse has been no more original big seller in the history of popular music. And its not because there is a flute in the band or that they have a song with the word snot in it.
David Bowie, The New York Dolls, Talking Heads and Elvis Costello shit all over Tull. they're actually quite annoying.
that being said, The Hazards of Love is a great album.
Wasn't the Millennium Park show in 2007, and free?
the dolls sh-- on tull....yeah right
If The Decemberists and Owen Pallett ever got together, the resulting creative tsunami would sweep away the memory of Jethro Tull. I can dream, can't I?
This album is amazing. So cohesive, yet each track is individually brilliant (though you'd be missing the wit and grandeur of the reprises if you tried to split it all up).
Buy it! Now!