3 stars (out of 4)
The Decemberists take a break from the grandiose, British-influenced rock of their recent albums on “The King is Dead” (Capitol), an unusually concise exercise in rustic Americana.
Wait a minute -- Colin Meloy and company pithy and understated? Who knew?
With the 18-minute single “The Tain” (2004), the multi-part suite “The Island” (from the 2006 album “The Crane Wife”), and the 2009 concept album “The Hazards of Love,” the Decemberists let their inner prog-rocker run wild. When the band roared in the face of potential preciousness, it worked. But the busy arrangements and Meloy’s penchant for Shakespearean syntax sometimes came off as overly labored and uninviting.
Now, the sound is a bit more muted and reined in: 10 songs in 40 now-you-hear-it-now-you-don’t minutes. Setting up in a barn outside their home base in Portland, the quintet brought in a few ringers to up the twang factor and enhance the friends-sitting-on-hay-bales aura of intimacy – vocalist Gillian Welch and R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck. Indeed, the tunes on which Buck plays – particularly “Calamity Song” and “Down by the Water” – sound like chiming outtakes from the Georgia band’s classic ‘80s albums.
But most of the reference points come from a decade or more earlier, when American bands were first experimenting with country voicings. From the fiddle-driven hootenanny evoked on “All Arise!” to the peddle-steel melancholy of “Dear Avery,” the Decemberists sound relaxed but not slack. The melodies unfold gracefully, and the songs rarely overstay their welcome, most checking in under four minutes. In the company of harmonica, accordion, peddle steel and acoustic guitars, Meloy dials down the elaborate wordplay (the occasional reference to a “plinth” or a “barony of ivy” aside) in favor of more straightforward lyrics about the fragile negotiation between “progress” and nature. In “Rise to Me,” when Meloy addresses his young son by name, it’s one of the more moving moments ever on a Decemberists record.
Though the band's sixth studio album may be perceived as less ambitious than its predecessors, it arrives as a welcome and likely necessary detour for the band: a collection of sturdy folk-country songs played with simple, sometimes stirring directness.
greg@gregkot.com