The Decemberists had been around for eight years by the release of The King Is Dead in 2011. They were mostly known for old-timey sounding songs with complicated and smart lyrics, and in fact were coming off 2009's The Hazards of Love, a concept album that was basically one very long song.
But for their next album, they went in the opposite direction. Their music up to that point could be termed as very British, but the Portland band followed this up by releasing a quintessential Americana album, featuring as much harmonica as their previous albums had accordion. The result is arguably their most impressive work yet.
Colin Meloy's voice works just as well for this style of music as it did for their previous albums, and the songwriting is at its best here. The change of styles allows their music to be fresher than anything they'd done in years.
Two of the highlights of the album are its twin acoustic ballads, "January Hymn" and "June Hymn." Each evokes the month of its title perfectly, and both are beautiful, well-written ballads that make excellent use of the backing vocals of Gillian Welch. Other album highlights include the Americana stomp "Don't Carry It All" and the R.E.M.-indebted first single "Down by the Water."
This album is actually a major stylistic shift for The Decemberists, but in many ways it doesn't feel that way, and it was not seen that way at the time of its release. This is probably because the style of The King Is Dead seems to come so effortlessly to them that it comes off as nothing more than a natural progression. More than that, it's very possibly their best album.
Grade: A
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