Word: songed
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...band called the Decemberists, named after the group of Russian insurgents who unsuccessfully tried to stage a coup against Tsar Nicholas I in 1825. That brand of exotic, obscure, and only-half-serious historical reference has come to define the work of the band, from their 2002 Five Songs EP (which, in trademark cheeky Decemberists fashion, was comprised of six songs), through their two breakthrough LPs, Castaways and Cutouts and Her Majesty the Decemberists, both released in 2003, and into their most recent release, 2004’s single-song 20-minute epic of an EP, The Tain...
Nowhere on the album is this more apparent than on the track “Ringway to Seatac,” where a guitar intro reaches back for the lo-fi grindy sound of the pre-Albini Wedding Present albums of the ’80s. Like the songs of that era, Gedge’s voice doesn’t dominate, and is sometimes barely intelligible underneath the crunching guitars. It’s a vintage Wedding Present move, and this song, with lyrics emerging about “being five hundred miles away?...
...it’s ultimately a compromise. “Always the Quiet One” allows for rapid leading drum patterns and a nice arrangement of jangly guitars and keyboard. But even when the guitars start to really rumble towards the end, the song fails to capture the Wedding Present sound. It’s too polished—understandably, of course, because by this time around the Wedding Present are a chamber-pop band without the roughness around the musical edges that puts so much charm on a record like their ’87 debut George Best...
...song that follows it, however, is not the stomper one might expect, but rather an upbeat, reflective eulogy on a ruined relationship. The song ends in a chorus of “I’m not sorry I met you, I’m not sorry it’s over, I’m not sorry there’s nothing to say,” but all told it sounds like a defensive bout of denial. Ironically, like most of the album, it sounds like an apology—an effort to come to terms with...
Formally speaking, the record sounds like a mix between Luna and the New Pornographers, with soaring melodies and charming boy/girl harmonies weaving in and out of every song. “We will always be in love,” guitarist Amy Milan croons on “Ageless Beauty,” a gorgeous, dreamy number that paints a bittersweet contrast to the heartbreak that wells behind the opener. “You look so good in the shoes of the outcast / I kiss your throat every time we say it won’t last / But then...