Music Monday: The Decemberists

Better late then never, eh?
Their Name: The Decemberists
Their Style: Indie Folk
Similar To/Sounds Like: Death Cab for Cutie
The Decemberists formed in Portland, Oregon, so naturally we are best friends and watch movies together on Friday nights. OK, so maybe I don't know them, but I sure do like their music. They have released several EPs and other records, but I'm only including their most recent 2 here since those are the only 2 I am familiar with.

The Crane Wife is an odd mix of songs, with the first track (The Crane Wife, Pt. 3) and the ninth track (The Crane Wife, Pts. 1 & 2) telling an old Japanese tale through music. The second track, with a title so long I don't care to repeat it here, is also a "story" song, and it'll take you about 12 minutes and 40 seconds to listen to the whole thing. A bit of internet research showed that many of the other tracks on the album are based on some piece of history, yet despite the many themes and stories happening in the album it manages to fall together into one cohesive record.

The Hazards of Love, on the other hand, is just one big story from start to finish. The story is about a woman named Margaret and her shape-shifting lover William. Add in a jealous Queen/controlling mother, a child-killing Rake, and an uncrossable river named Annan, and it's enough to fill up an entire 17 song album. There's no way you can pick or or two songs to listen to, you've got to listen to the whole thing in order to get the context. I'm not linking all 17 songs, though, so you're going to have to hop on YouTube or iTunes and hunt them down for yourself. Sorry!

The Crane Wife
1. The Crane Wife, Pt. 3*
2. The Island: Come and See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel the Drowning
3. Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
4. O Valencia!*
5. The Perfect Crime No. 2
6. When the War Came
7. Shankill Butchers*
8. Summer Song
9. The Crane Wife, Pts. 1 & 2*
10. Sons and Daughters

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The Hazards of Love
1. Prelude
2. The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone)
3. A Bower Scene
4. Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
5. The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)
6. The Queen's Approach
7. Isn't it a Lovely Night?
8. The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid
9. An Interlude
10. The Rake's Song*
11. The Abduction of Margaret
12. The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing
13. Annan Water*
14. Margaret in Captivity
15. The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)*
16. The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)
17. The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)

*Hand Picked by Moi.

I love how you can listen to a song while you're doing something, and then every time you hear that song afterwords you remember that moment and what you were doing. I remember listening to the Crane Wife Pts. 1 & 2 on my trip to Vietnam two years ago. Oh memories!

Side note: Does the layout for this blog look OK? It looks good on my computer, but I know sometimes on different screen sizes things can get thrown out of whack. I was fed up with how I was coding Music Monday blogs before and changed it for this week. Let me know if it looks really screwy or something on your screen!