The Lovers' Album of the Week

The Decemberists Picaresque

I have been having a difficult time writing this review. The first reason is obvious, I'm not a music critic or even a writer. But more importantly, I've just been having a hard time getting inspired. Now I understand this is not a very insuring thing to say about the album of the week choice. But I have to stress that being able to express what you feel into words is a skill and those who are less skillful as myself are more prone to "writer's block." So as I was taking a break from thinking with one of my newly reborn rituals, garage sale rummaging, I ran across a 45 record of Procol Harum's "White Shade of Pale," one of the most recognizable hits of the Sixties. I turned over $.50 of my hard-earned money and took it home. While I was listening to it for what had to be the one zillionth time in my lifetime, I thought the Decemberists are really the modern Procol Harum. On their third release, Picaresque, singer/songwriter Colin Meloy has fashioned an album chock full of poetic, Harum-like narratives that conjure up ancient times with a flair for the ole sea. Which is really nothing new for the Decemberists whose previous releases, Castaways and Cutouts (2003) and Her Majesty (2003), had already established this as the Decemberists sound ("Bus Mall," with its mentions of freeways and bus stops, is certainly an exception). However, Picaresque feels like Meloy's most satisfying and realized project. He sure can make grisly lines like "In this belly of a whale, it's ribs are ceilling beams, it's guts are carpeting, I guess we have some time to kill" work. From the crashing opener "The Infanta" (think Procol Harum's "Conquistador") to the epic "Espionage" and "The Mariner's Revenge Song" (Procol Harum's "A Salty Dog") to the lovely "Engine Driver" ("Shine On Brightly"), the Decemberists' Picaresque is an album that will be on many critics Best of 2005 lists. And if we lived in a perfect world, songs like "The Engine Driver" and "16 By 32" would be mainstream hits that someone would pick up at garage sales so many years later...