Image by J. Augustus Knapp, from John Uri Lloyd's fantasy novel Etidorpha, 1895
So the Decemberists have a new record coming out, and it apparently is - BAFFLINGLY - an overblown rock opera. Actually, that should come as a surprise to no one, unless you happen to think that they had maxed out their "theatricality meter" with 2006's The Crane Wife. But I'm not here to apologize for liking the Decemberists (not that an apology is not deserved - it will be delivered at a later date). Here's the deal - I was, once upon a time, a Humanities student, and I stumbled across a band that was designed specifically to cater to the proclivities of Humanities students. The songs are catchy, and the lyrics can be fun if you don't take them too seriously. So I'm okay with the Decemberists.
Some might argue that the Decemberists can't make a rock opera because they simply DO NOT ROCK. They are first and foremost a pop band - that's true. But listen to the promo track for their new album, The Hazards of Love - it kinda rocks. Also, they've already composed and released a hard-rocking rock-opera-type thing back in 2004 called The Tain, a 20-minute single-song EP about Cúchulainn, an epic hero of early Irish literature. I saw the Decemberists perform the entirety of The Tain live when they toured in 2004, and it was a fairly impressive display of sung storytelling and mid-song instrument-switching. Of the EP's five musical sections, the second probably rocks the hardest, but my favorite part is the third section, in which a dying soldier is lulled into oblivion by a "chorus of waifs". It's pretty epic.
"The Tain Pt. 3" by the Decemberists
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