Daily Rec: It’s back!
Well, it appears we’re moving on, full steam ahead. To bury our Star Wars-related shame, I’ll have to write a little something about a song here.
The Decemberists - Valerie Plame
Back in 2006, when The Decemberists released The Crane Wife, there were two comments that pretty much everyone echoed:
1) Boy, the band has evolved a lot musically.
2) But, I just don’t enjoy it as much.
Somewhere along the line, as the arrangements became more rock-intensive, The Decemberists lost the palpable sense of joy that their music conveyed. So, when the band announced the release of a series of EPs to be released through the end of 2008, there was some rejoicing on the part of their fans, but also a bit of trepidation that The Decemberists would continue down the less than satisfying path they’d followed for the last two years or so.
With the release of Always the Bridesmaid: Vol. 1, we have our answer. The Decemberists are back..and they are the band at a country bear jamboroo! Holy crap, this song is pure joy. To me, it suggests that what The Decemberists have really been missing is the sound of lead singer Colin Meloy’s voice when he’s upbeat. It’s an entirely different instrument than when he’s downbeat.
You could argue that this is, musically, a bit of a regression from the band’s more recent releases. You would be a giant, joyless jerk to do so.
Look for an updated music forecast from which you can stream this song shortly. AND STREAM IT.
I’m missing the transcendent joy in these tracks. I’ll concede that it’s not nearly as soul-crushingly depressing as most of The Crane Wife (an album I like), but I can’t see the joy in them that you seem to find. Is it because he’s not singing about the Shankill Butchers and instead just babbling about Valerie Plame and New England? Because the subject matter is arguably more neutral - though it’s hard to see upbeat out of Valerie Plame as subject matter per se. I understand what I think you mean, which is that this is not forcefully mournful in both tone and subject, but I think that’s a bit like saying that certain funerals are less depressing than others, though they might all have a kind of sad poignancy? To me, these songs listen like a goth kid who is trying to be upbeat but doesn’t remember how. The strained attempt at that tone, or perhaps my own associations of earlier songs which rivet his voice to sadness, make this feel even sadder somehow, though I don’t think that’s the intended effect.