The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
I sort of have two reviews for this album: one from a music fan, which I am, and one from a ‘reviewer’, which I’m not really but bear with me.
The music fan, simply, says that this is pretty rubbish, really. Stodgy, lumpen, and with the odd exception devoid of tunes. It’s not lovable. It may be an album you can respect for its ambition and all that sort of stuff but when I stick an album on the stereo I want some sort of sense of satisfaction or enjoyment or something, and all I feel with this is the urge to kick them in the bollocks and tell them to just bloody well stop poncing around and get on with it.
Put simply, whilst I presume it is very high on intellectual achievement, the instinctive, artistic side – the side which irrespective of anything gets you tapping your feet and humming the tunes – is thinner than Calista Flockhart on the last day of Lent.
If I am trying to be a music critic then there’s a lot to praise. The exploring of themes, the over-arching concept, the boldness, the bravery of forging on into new territory when you could just trot out some more Neutral Milky alt-folk; all these things are to be praised. In fact they are to be really loudly praised. The proggy guitar stuff, the shameless embracing of the idea of a concept album, this all requires more than a little bit of balls, particularly when aloof irony is the chief currency in the world of the hipster, so I really do salute them for their creativity and their artistic integrity.
I want to like this album, really I do, and I do respect it. But music is for enjoying and at this, I am afraid, it fails miserably.
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)
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The Decemberists – The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid
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Hmm.. someone’s been listening to the white album.
Not exactly done much to push the boundaries of recorded music, have they, judging by these two tracks?
Expect it to sell by the truckload, you’ll soon be hearing it blaring out from every Ford Mondeo on the M25.
Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks, bollocks, bollocks.
You’re clearly not ‘getting’ this. It’s not an album you can pull tracks from (although people inevitably will); you have to listen to it in one whole swoop. LOUD. It’s a fucking joyous album. If you can’t get swept along by the majesty & the pomp & the silliness of it then, Christ, I really do despair.
I have listened to it all the way through about a dozen times, probably more. I have never listened to solitary tracks, although the two above are at least decent in isolation.
The problem with listening to it all in its entirety is that it’s fucking boring.
i heard the single from this the other day and really liked it…..
Agree with Toady on this one, and I was a fan. Pompous shite. And I listened the whole way through as well, just got bored. The cleverer than thou thing just doesn’t do it for me. You need tunes, tunes and more tunes. This is the cleverest thing you can do in pop music.
right just listened to the 2 tracks on offer here, and i’m heading out to buy this……sounds really good.
Dunno what you have been listening to Toad but they must of sent you a dodgy copy or something…..you never know i might agree with you after listening to the whole thing but i’m doubting that.
Dylan – i hate it when people reference the Beatles….stop it, it’s lazy!
Toad – you make it sound like that all you listen to all day is 3 minute pop songs…..which i know for a fact you don’t
DC – you can bitch slap Toad next week.
amen
I found it rather powerful when I listened to it from start to finish. Certainly not boring, in fact, a wee bit emotional.
However, I listen to most of my music in playlists, and I’m not sure if I’ll be pulling much out of this. Time will tell, but I’m sceptical.
No harm done if they bang out a more ‘friendly’ album some time soon. Hey, maybe they released that singles series just a few months before this album to keep us ‘playlisters’ happy.
TARKIO RULES 4EVA
This album just isn’t any fun to listen to. it’s not enjoyable all. The tried something cool and failed but, good for them. Christ I wish they’d release more singles like ‘Always the Bridesmaid’.
his voice really grates on me, like brian molko gone all folky (it really is a BAD voice, there’s no two ways about it,) which is a real shame since if it was any one else singing i would lap this up. but as it stands this is just another in along line of decemberist albums that i can’t stomach for any longer than a track and a half, at most.
it’s just annoying.
did i mention his voice was shite?
Oh yeah!
look at what i learnt to do today……i think his voice sounds like the guy from Meursault…..and i love his voice
Can we all bitch slap Toad next week – you know – just for sport?
i dunno if it’s my week to be in charge…but if it is…then i’d say yes
’9 comments it took before this post went off the rails’
Oh I don’t know.
You could be generous and say anything up to thirteen..
Not ‘fun’? Fuck me.
Granted, it’s not Kylie Fucking Minogue, but bloody hell.
cunt
that was for tom
I agree with Jim on the “tunes” aspect, that is the cleverest thing any one can do, it’s also the most difficult which must be why more people don’t do it.
I also agree with Mr Bear on Meloy’s voice. I just can’t listen to it. I’ve tried with Picaresque and then Crane Wife but it’s so arch it’s bloody irritating. And he sounds nothing like the bloke from Meursault…
Meloy and Antony Hegarty are two voices I just don’t enjoy listening to which is a shame because I’m sure I’m missing out on some great music.
And Meloy uses lots of big words which for some reason annoys me too cos I love big words.
That is all. Spleen vented.
I disagree about his voice. It’s got a certain raw scratchiness which appeals in a ‘sad fella singing about lost love way’. It’s rough sure but pleasingly so.
It’s just that I find these songs more interesting than emotionally engaging. I revert back to my earlier statements that the only reason to make art is that you feel a burning desire to express something inside yourself. This feels more like an intellectual exercise. Interesting, but not fun.
I do like his voice, but that’s by the by. Ben’s second paragraph sums up my feelings on this. There doesn’t feel to be any real compulsion to make music behind this stuff. It’s kind of flat. I just find myself thinking ‘hm, yes, very clever’.
Wow, this is fun. And surprising. I’ve never been a huge Decemberists fan actually. I liked Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect and a few other tunes, but I never really got into them. But based on DC’s recommendation I went out and bought this new record on the first day it came out, and then I had a couple of 7-hour car drives where I just kept listening to it. Having lived with it pretty closely for a couple of weeks now I absolutely love it. And in fact my wife, who feels the same way about Colin Meloy’s voice as mr.bear, was commenting to me the other day that she thought it was a big step forward for the band, a lot more “fun” and “interesting” than their earlier stuff, which literally drives her from the room.
No tunes? Stodgy? Lumpen? Not “lovable”? I just don’t get that at all. I find it wonderfully tuneful from beginning to end. Energetic and warm. And Shara Worden’s vocals on The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid completely blow me away. One the best vocal performances I’ve heard in ages. This is really a great, great record in my opinion.
Pretentious? Pompous shite? Clever? I dunno. I hear a lot of sly humor in this, not pomposity. You want pretentious? How about Sgt. Peppers? Not bad company, that. And what “big words”? Does he ever use “big words” except for humorous effect? Not that I can hear.
But by all means continue to hate it y’all. More tickets available for me to see them perform this baby live. Can’t wait.
Wow, when our opinions differ, they do so in a drastic way! Though it seems everyone either loves or hates this album. I had some other bloggers tell me they were bored by it until they read my own review and reconsidered it.
One difference in how it is perceived seems to be in how you listen to it. For the first listen (as a reviewer, pompous critic type;), I got away from the computer, played the entire album, read along with the lyrics to grasp the story, and pictured the whole thing performed on stage as a rock opera. Then I could easily get into the album simply as a listener.
It’s one of my personal favorites of the year so far, and I imagine I’m not the only one who enjoys singing (badly) along with Shara Worden’s Queen character. Granted, I seem to have more patience with albums than most…
Well it’s no surprise to me that someone like C&B didn’t like the earlier ones, and does like this one. I am just the other way round.
It’s odd how little actual debate there is on the subject though. When a band does something like this it seems to simply depend on whether or not you enjoy the results of their experiment. Some do, some don’t, it appears, and I doubt there’s much one side of the argument can meaningfully say to those on the other.
i’m a little worried……it seems that i’m meant to like the thing as a whole, and tho i have only have heard these two songs and think that they are really good….i’m wondering if when i get the album (nearly bought it tonight, but i’m broke till pay day so couldn’t really justify it) i’ll go off it…….
yes i am…….Thats for Bear that shits in the woods….
on another note…..does anyone know if you get a download of the album if you buy the vinyl?
No idea, but I can always ping you copy of the digital files if you buy the vinyl and they don’t give you the mp3s as well.
Cheers
btw is the fact that i love Misplaced Childhood by Marillion, any guide to my possible liking of this album?
Yes
Tart FTW!
i’m commenting here without reading your review because i’m waiting for the record to arrive in the mail and don’t want to be swayed by your insightful and witty commentary.
seriously, i’m not going to read this until i hear the whole thing for myself.
isn’t that fascinating???? : )
There’s a foamy, nutty ale waiting for you in Virginia in May, Cf&Bf. Some fucking sense, finally.
Matthew! I love Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood so THERE!
And the whole school that uses this notion of inaccessibility to critique this album or anything that smacks of prog-rockness in their opinion can just take their anti-intellectualism and stuff it, sorry.
Here’s what I think is going on here, in kinder terms…. It’s an album. It’s a creation with big instrumentation and dramatics and a sense of the opus about it. And you have to either find value in that effort or not. If you look at that description and say “that’s not very rock and roll, that can’t possibly be ‘fun’ or ‘exciting’ or ‘cool’” then yeah, it’s gonna suck and be boring as hell.
And maybe it’s because I cut my rock and roll teeth on bands that made albums that were meant to be opera/opus (The Who, Jethro Tull, Queen, Zeppelin). But I can’t wait to hear some of this live in May and see how the instrumentation holds up to a live show. I am not totally in love with Meloy’s voice, but I feel the same way about many voices in music, that’s why people have bands and don’t sit at pianos and become lounge singers
OR, you might say, “those projects that try to be big and prog-rocky and say something as a piece are cool but this one just didn’t make it at all” and then I’ll grant you that.
But, to say that it’s pompous and stuffy because he uses big words is just crap because think of all the ridiculous indie music that you all go on and on about that is full of ludicrous phrases and I’m including all that alt-folk indie stuff too. (yes I’m stealing this argument from DC as he used it over on the boards at WOXY to defend this same album) but really, are we that short sighted to think this is pompous simply because it’s not the standard fare of “i woke up… you were gone… i need you back… come home now” or “i saw the bluest sky tonight… thought of my dead dear mother… drank a cup of tea and wrote this check to the taxman” type of songs we’re spoon fed? (leaving aside Meursault who’s lyrics taunt me and are no less engaging and high minded as these we critique, another analogy here, apologies dear Neil xx)
Obviously, I love this album, I got hooked by two songs on their own and when I heard the whole was blown away by the immensity of the project of it. Argue with that if you will, but this “pompous” notion is just stickin in my craw a bit, grrrr
xoxoxo
I’ve only listened to the two tracks posted above, and I had been keen to give the album as a whole a fair crack of the whip.
Sorry Muruch – nothing personal – but having read that I’m running a fucking mile!
Thanks for the heads-up!
It’s not anti-intellectualism to say that you don’t like an album because you don’t find the music very enjoyable to listen to. It’s just basic.
I wasn’t being anti-intellectual, I was saying that I gave it credit for that side, but as a piece of music it is a dud. It is still a piece of music isn’t it, rock opera pretensions aside?
go Tart!!!
oh Tom, you just come sit by me and we’ll bliss out to Marillion and this together, hahhaha
Tart
I you’ve hit a bug bear of mine here. People use this argument with Phillips Glass too. It’s nothing to do with thinking that it is stuffy, and uses big words. I worked for three years in Opera, so believe me, stuffy and long winded I can handle. Grand emotion I can handle. But this album is tackling huge emotional vista’s on an operatic scale and the power of the music fails totally to convey it (how’s that for stuffy?). It feels like a college kid writing a story about the hell of war.
It’s not like this is T. S. Elliot where only about 30 people in the whole world at any given time are well read enough to really understand his work. This is a album with some long words, best enjoyed as a whole. Which isn’t actually all that intimidating.
As Toad said “some like it, some don’t”. Saying that it’s because any one literate enough to read Toad would be scared off because it’s not accessible enough is really patronizing. There is some pretty inaccessible music on this site. And there is nothing wrong with being ambitious with an album, it’s just that when you do you set your standards incredibly high. I thing this album falls short of those very high standards.
I’m reluctant to overplay my hand having only heard the two songs above, but it strikes me this probably falls between two stools in terms of ambition and skill.
As Jim and TeamTurnip referred to, it really can be difficult to write memorable and effective pop songs; where the hooks, choruses and riffs all fall in the ‘right’ place, but the song still retains some originality and vigour.
At the other end of the spectrum is truly exploratory work, where composers create music that is intellectually challenging and striking, but is often difficult to enjoy or connect with emotionally.
If this album sounds anything like the two songs above suggests it might, then it’s actually not something that’s particularly difficult for a band of reasonably skilled musicians to create. This isn’t the sound of a band pushing themselves or trying particularly hard. Effectively, they’re noodling.
Had the band been a bit less self-indulgent and taken the time to extract the strongest ideas from their jam sessions, and craft those ideas into finished songs, then it might have been more succesful. There are certainly some appealing moments in the two tracks here.
However, they haven’t edited out the garbage and offered us a tight and lean set of enjoyable songs, and equally they’ve failed to truly explore or expand the boundaries of their genre; so as I said the venture falls between those two stools.
It’s ultimately a damp squib, a failure.
jesus christ….my fucking arse
It’s a lovely arse, Tom. We know.
Ben,
You’re the one who proclaimed this album to be an intellectual exercise. Jim declared it pompous, and TT said it uses big words which annoys him. I point out that anti-intellectualism is not a valid argument against the piece, in my opinion, because most of us are used to rather simplistic lyrics (thereby lowering our expectations and assumptions as to what is lyrically appropriate) and because at the same time, we embrace those bands we love with rather complex lyrics simply because we love them. So, the anti-intellectualism argument is a false one, it masks a more simple argument that says “I just don’t like what they did here.” That was my point. Pardon me if I was unclear or seemed condescending, it was unintentional, I assure you. (And, there were loads of people who read and enjoyed and “got” T.S. Elliot in his day and after, by the by.)
You, sir, express in your last comment exactly what I state as a valid argument against this album, i.e., that it doesn’t rise to it’s own standards of producing that emotional tidal wave that a truly opus work will. And there is nothing stuffy about that discussion at all, no matter who you reference as long as it is explained in language that commonly educated people can relate to. (and perhaps with bad grammar, hahaha, my forte!)
So, don’t go taking me to task on being patronizing when you, yourself are throwing your weight around by disclosing your past experience in the field of Opera. A clear understanding of someone’s argument and a well-crafted reply is never without merit, my dear xoxo
(and apologies for singling one out, I’m really speaking to more than one of you, of course)
“I’m reluctant to overplay my hand having only heard the two songs above, but it strikes me this probably falls between two stools in terms of ambition and skill.”
then you write….
“However, they haven’t edited out the garbage and offered us a tight and lean set of enjoyable songs, and equally they’ve failed to truly explore or expand the boundaries of their genre; so as I said the venture falls between those two stools.”
Surely you mean to put an “if” and a “then” in that second part, since you’ve not heard the entire thing?
love ya Dylan, xoxo
As I said, the record’s brilliant, and everybody who says otherwise is deaf, or retarded, or both. And probably sterile. Weee. This is fun.
Tart. My weight has nothing to do with my job in Opera. I’m just big boned. And my Mum thinks I’m very handsome.
i love Tart she encapsulated totally what i was trying to say!!!
the record’s brilliant, and everybody who says otherwise is deaf, or retarded, or both. And probably sterile
Make that a foamy, nutty ale and a squeeze on the knee.
I’ll take the foamy, nutty ale, but you keep your sticky fingers and sweaty hands to yourself young man! Dylan would not understand. One Welshman at a time. One Welshman at a time.
You want the moon on a stick, you do.
Big boned, hahahah <3
“One Welshman at a time.”
Or less.
Well Tart I don’t think the over-intellectualism is a false argument. It is, as you say, secondary to the ‘this record is rubbish’ thing, which is just instinctive. But once you have tried and failed to find any emotional core to this album then the overt, and rather joylessly deliberate intellectual side of the project becomes extrememly grating precisely because it isn’t backed up by any sort of musical depth.
You are quite right in pointing out, of course, that if you were to like the music then the other side of it becomes a bonus rather than a bugbear, but as soon as the music lets you down all that stuff becomes incredibly irritating.
maybe you’re all just too thick….
Long wurdz hurtz my hed.
my focus has gone…..just listening to Clem Snide’s Hungry Bird…..fucking hell….now there’s an album
There’s a band altogether, mate. You have just made me a very happy man.
how….our friend from Chicago sent me a vinyl copy of the album….it’s beautiful.
anyway i digress, payday next weds and i’m going to buy this and find out who right and wrong….
PRAY FOR THE NONBELIEVER
Bitter Honey is an absolute revelation. Yet another new artist drawn to my attention through this site. thanks all.
Tom! You WON that album and it was given by the very generous artist himself via my loving hands! Get your story straight man, xoxo
i know!!!!
So, i finally got this album last week, and tho i’ve only had time to listen to it right through a couple of times so far, i think it promises to be quite an album.
i’m guessing that if you didn’t know the back story to it (i.e. it’s a concept album) then much of the perceived pomposity would disappear.
Might report back with more thoughts later….but, in short, this album is pretty damn good.