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| Tuesday, March 24, 2009 01:00 PM |
| (Last updated on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 01:15 PM) | | The Hazards of Love |
 by Fëanor |
I bought The Decemberists' new album, The Hazards of Love, on iTunes pretty much as soon as it was released, because I love The Decemberists. As I gave it my first serious listen, I live-twittered my reactions, track by track. (I realized this was maybe a bit rude afterwards, when I saw that my tweets had completely taken over my Facebook homepage, but... well, who am I kidding, I'd probably do it again.) Since today is the day the album gets released in brick and mortar stores, I thought I might as well repost my Twitter review here, in chronological order. It follows below. To sum up and augment it: the album is really like one long piece of music, with themes and phrases that recur and transform as it goes on. I wasn't able to quite follow the story, but apparently it's "about a woman named Margaret, her shape-shifting forest-dwelling lover William and various obstacles - an evil queen, a murderous rake - between them and bliss" (source). Nice. Anyway, the point is, the concept album/rock opera is back, and I couldn't be happier about it. The Hazards of Love is another triumph from one of my favorite contemporary bands.
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"The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone)" = ridiculously good.
"A Bower Scene" also ridiculously good. Brilliant, beautiful album so far.
"Won't Want for Love (Margaret In the Taiga)" = another beautiful song. Wow. Shaping up to be another fantastic concept album
"The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)" - more traditional love song, not as interesting as previous songs, but still very good
"The Queen's Approach" - what am I supposed to say about a song that's fewer than 30 seconds long? It's ok, I guess.
"Isn't It a Lovely Night?" - first misstep as far as I'm concerned. Pretty dull song. old fashioned with boring lyrics.
"The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid"-prefer Repaid part to TWCiW part. really comes alive when guitar riff kicks in ~2:00. \m/
"An Interlude" - lovely little instrumental piece
"The Rake's Song" - aww yeah. Thumping, stomping, dark, evil story song.
"The Abduction of Margaret" - familiar and excellent musical themes from earlier in the album recur here. Just fantastic.
"The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing"-"gave him the form of a faun to inhabit by day" fantastic metal guitar riffs, great vocals
"Annan Water" - I love this band so much. Brilliant, beautiful song.
"Margaret In Captivity" - amazing guitar piece, wonderful vocals. Love the way they're weaving all these themes together
"The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)" - I rarely like a children's chorus, but it works here. love the off-key string scrapings
"The Wanting Comes In Waves (Reprise)" - a reprise of one of my less favored song parts, but still good.
"The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)" - a slower song, with a definite country twang. Not my favorite, but has some nice bits |
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