Here's my review of The Crane Wife by The Decemberists:
The Crane Wife 3 - Not sure why they put this before 1 and 2, or why they put 2 on the end of The Perfect Crime, but who knows. That's their thing, I guess. Anywho, the song is great, comes in near the beginning of the song with a bassline with much more presence than on previous Decemberists albums. It's very catchy and one of my favorites.
The Island, Come And See, The Landlord's Daughter, You'll Not Feel The Drowning - Hell of a name, and hell of a song/epic, which is worth the 12 minutes. It doesn't ever get bogged down in its own size, and keeps you interested the whole time. I'm going to try and avoid as many details as possible, so as not to spoil it for other people, but just to give an idea of the song.
Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) - Very upbeat and catchy tune, you can definitely hear Walla's production style throughout the cd, and this is one where it stands out. There's also a nice duet by, I believe, Jenny Conlee, but I'm not certain.
O Valencia! - Another product of Walla's slick production style, it took me a little while to get over the super poppy sound, but I'm starting to really enjoy it, especially the bridge from the verse to chorus.
When The War Came - Hated the song. It doesn't sound anything like Decemberists, but judge for yourself.
Shankhill Butchers - It is like Of Angels and Angles, with IMO better vocal harmony and an eerie sound produced from several instruments that are pure Decemberists.
The Perfect Crime 2 - This is an almost 70s funk song, with cheesy lyrics and a guitar solo (what?!). Not a big fan.
Summersong - Very fun song.
The Crane Wife 1 and 2 - I felt that Colin put a lot of effort and thought into the first (or is the third?) song about the crane wife. The second two, however, sound a bit too drawn out for me. There is a lot of filler between the two songs, and it just drags on. This could easily have been cut down in time, and besides, it's just sort of boring.
Sons and Daughters - A feel good song that's down to earth and catchy as hell. One of my favorites on the cd as well.
So, with the exception of three songs, I'm really enjoying cd, and I think that it's going to be real easy for people to fall in love with this album. Sure, it's more polished, but it gives off a nice shine.
Posts: 174 | Location: My Tree | Registered: 15 December 2005
From first listen I have to say I really nearly love it. And I think that both The Crane Wife Part 1 and 2 and When the War Came are great songs, with the first quite poignant and the second appropriately "heavy." And it does sound like stuff they've done before, check out the Tain for "hard" Decemberists.
Originally posted by brighteyes215: From first listen I have to say I really nearly love it. And I think that both The Crane Wife Part 1 and 2 and When the War Came are great songs, with the first quite poignant and the second appropriately "heavy." And it does sound like stuff they've done before, check out the Tain for "hard" Decemberists.
First, I have listened to the Tain, and that sound was more "dark" than "heavy" in my opinion. Second, what do you mean by appropriately heavy?
Posts: 174 | Location: My Tree | Registered: 15 December 2005
What I mean by appropriately is that the song is talking about an approaching war. I mean I don't know the lyrics or the album well enough to put it in context, I'm just saying that when I heard the song I got the feeling of impending destruction which is very appropriate if we're dealing with a coming war. I mean that's about all I meant.
Colin Meloy actually manages to have a relatively pretty voice this time around. In a sense, it turns the songs into more "songs" in the traditional sense, rather than picaresque musical stories on the last album. So yea, this album is different than Picaresque...since the singing is better, the lyrics don't stick out as much though, so the songs are a little less magical.
That said, I really like this album alot for what is it. Currently it's up among the ranks of my other favorites: TV on the Radio, Hold Steady, Liars, and Yo La Tengo.
Posts: 747 | Location: San Diego ==> Duke U. 2012 :D | Registered: 24 July 2006
I am a hardcore fan of Picaresque, i.e. it was my favorite album of 2005, and yet I wasn't disappointed by The Crane Wife. I think it is a very good album, with the very notable exception of "The Perfect Crime." Despite the different sound from their previous LPs, I think this is a really good growth as a band, made even more remarkable by the fact that this is significantly less catchy and easy to get into than Picaresque, not exactly what I expected from a major label debut.
Picaresque was wonderful, but I could see them somewhat digging themselves into a rut. With Crane Wife they broke out of it in a great way. This album's a real grower, too - I hated Perfect Crime 2 and When The War Came at first, but now I really enjoy them.
------ There's a golden age comin' round, comin' round, comin' round
Posts: 2247 | Location: ATL-abouts. | Registered: 24 October 2006
Picaresque was definitely not my favorite album last year. I really liked some of the songs on it("Eli the Barrowboy" is a great one), but the rest (especially "The Mariner's Revenge Song") were just... too much for me. So, I wasn't really expecting to be amazed by The Crane Wife. However, I must say that I'm really enjoying it. Surprisingly enough, my favorite song on the album is probably "The Island...", despite the fact that it's 12 minutes long - which is rather incredible considering the fact that I often find long songs boring and bloated. All in all, good album; definitely has a chance of making my top 20 this year.
Let me preface my remarks by saying that I'd never heard anything by this band before buying The Crane Wife, and never heard anything about the band either. I picked it up mainly because of the metascore.
And I am torn over it.
On the one hand, a lot of the songs are very... "nice". They aren't dark, simply because they are so poppy and sugar-sweet. They are just OK chill-out music for me. That's a plus of sorts. What really bugs me about it is that it is horribly, immensely boring. I cannot stand the vocalist's lame deadpan delivery, the totally uninspired tunes and the bland, folk-pop instrumentation. It just screams out to me that they're really trying way too hard to be "indie" rather than being interesting. And yet some of the songs have their winning moments. I didn't like this album much but I don't hate it -- scratch that, I do hate it. It's old-sounding, stupid and deadly dull but at the same time it's just not offensive enough to loath. I want to dislike this album more than I actually abhor it, and that irritates me. It's not the kind of music that I would like anyway, but shouldn't really good music be able to transcend genre boundaries? I honestly don't know. In the end it's just sort of OK, too tasteless to be great and too winning to be loathsome.
In the end it's just sort of OK, too tasteless to be great and too winning to be loathsome.
5/10
Sounds like you may need some therapy. I wouldn't call this album boring. Unless you're completely against vocal-centric indie pop, I'd say this album stands up well against any other album of its sort. It's my favorite genre and The Decemberists remain one of my top ten bands. I've never loved them but I saw them live and that was really unbelievable.
Hey, allow the man to have his choices. I know some people who hate the Decemberists, but I leave them be and go listen to the Decemberists so that I myself will be happy. I can see why this album could grate on the nerves of someone who doesn't know the band already. Then again, I've seen plenty of people discovering the Decemberists through this album and loving them, so I guess it's up in the air.
And yes, they put on a fantastic live show. I wish Culling of the Fold had made it onto the album. Oh well, another B-sides collection is coming.
------ There's a golden age comin' round, comin' round, comin' round
Posts: 2247 | Location: ATL-abouts. | Registered: 24 October 2006
Let me preface my remarks by saying that I'd never heard anything by this band before buying The Crane Wife, and never heard anything about the band either. I picked it up mainly because of the metascore.
And I am torn over it [etc.]
I was a big fan of Picaresque, which was the first Decemberists album I really listened to carefully. I've been slow to get around to The Crane Wife, but what I've heard, I've liked.
That being said, that's another damn fine piece of writing, D. While I don't agree with your take on the album, I love the way you articulate it. I can understand exactly where you're coming from, even if nothing about the album or the band strikes me in the same way. In particular...
quote:
In the end it's just sort of OK, too tasteless to be great and too winning to be loathsome.
...is just a great comment.
I only wish 99% of the critics filling the tubes these days would get the difference between the easy snark and an expression of genuine confoundment.
Well played, sir, and thank you.
Now Playing: NPR's All Things Considered <-- and don't get me started on these knuckleheads music coverage lately...
Posts: 1584 | Location: Bloomington, IN | Registered: 23 May 2004
The Crane Wife is good, to very good, to great in certain places. It just doesn't suck me in the same way that Picaresque did, and even after many listens, still does. There the songs/stories just seemed more engrossing. Perhaps The Crane Wife isn't the best thing to be introduced to the band through, but fans of the band should definitely check it out if they haven't.
