Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Soft as Fontanel

#31 The Crane Wife - The Decemberists. The Decemberists have a lot about them that are annoying. Smarty-pants lyrics with 10 cent art school words like 'picaresque', 'fontanel,', and 'cormorants'; a hipper-than-thou singer with a somewhat annoying voice; complete lack of chemistry among members of the band; long songs inspired by obscure historical figures and legends that no one has ever heard of. So there is no good reason for me to love this CD as much as I do, but dammit if these guys can't craft some beautiful songs. From the peppy pop of Summersong and O Valencia to the epic drama of the Island and Crane wife trilogies (two trilogies on one CD!) and then just try to get the melody of Sons and Daughters out of your head. Hmm...Im starting to think this should be higher...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hear you on this one. I like it too plus they are from Portland (whoo-hoo!). Unfortunately, their latest concept/story record got a D+ in Entertainment Weekly. To tell you the truth, I wasn't expecting much after I heard it was a "concept album." Those have the potential of being horrendous.

CTV said...

I dunno Jackie - the new single they released is creepily awesome. I think the full CD is out now. Gotta get it.

By the way, hipsters like you should be reading Pitchfork instead of EW :)

Jackie said...

Never got into reading Pitchfork...EW is more my style, gossipy and about all genres of pop culture.

In no way am I a hipster at all, just a middle aged mom trying to stay up on good music.

But haven't heard the new single...I'll have to take a listen.