Ranking Discographies: The Decemberists
Last month, my colleague Chris Harrison wrote a piece ranking the discography of his favorite band, The Roots. If you haven’t read it already, you should go do that, since it’s an excellent primer on the band, and where to start with their music. But it got me thinking about my own favorite band, the Decemberists. I’ve listened to all of their albums time and time again, and I certainly have my favorites, but I’ve never sat down and quantified that…UNTIL NOW. Please enjoy this timely (it’s December!) and definitive ranking of America’s number one band named after a 19th century Russian uprising.
7. The King is Dead (2011)
I appreciate The King is Dead for teaching a younger Matt to enjoy certain elements of country music I’d otherwise previously written off. The album features an infectious southern twang permeating its catchy, if ultimately forgettable tunes, making them irresistible to sing along to when you’re alone in the car. There’s a slight wistfulness to the album, released in 2011 before the band’s four year hiatus, particularly the song “January Hymn,” a quiet acoustic number about ruminating on the past at the birth of a new year. The lines “What were the words I meant to say before she left? When I could see her breath lead where she was going to” perfectly encapsulate the way the passage of time erodes even important memories. Unfortunately, that erosion also applies to one-off country-folk experiments. In spite of a few catchy tunes, this might be the least essential Decemberists album, though it something of a tossup, given our next entry...
Best Song: “January Hymn”
6. The Hazards of Love (2009)
There’s not really anything wrong with The Hazards of Love, the Decemberists’ second major foray into the concept album rock opera after 2006’s The Crane Wife. The album is solid from start to finish, but because of its design as a concept album, it’s meant to be listened to all in one sitting. As a result, there aren’t a lot of standout tracks, which is unusual for a Decemberists album. It’s the kind of album you need to really be in the mood to listen to, as a lot of its songs are intertwined with one another, and they don’t always jibe when removed from their context as part of the overall narrative; the sum of this album is definitely greater than its parts. That’s not to say the album is altogether devoid of great tracks, though. Shara Nova turns in an exceptional guest performance on “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid,” and “The Rake’s Song” is as catchy a song about infanticide as you’re likely to find. But as much as I enjoy it, I’m just not always in the mood for an hour-long prog-folk experiment.
Best Song: “The Rake’s Song”
5. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (2015)
The most recent Decemberists album was something of a return to the band’s folk-rock roots musically, but the album also saw the band exploring their legacy and their relationship with their fans. The self-aware introductory number “The Singer Addresses His Audience” attempts to navigate commercial successes and authenticity, explaining that even though “your bridal processional / Is a televised confessional / To the benefits of Axe shampoo / You know we did it for you.” The questions of authenticity and artistic ownership linger over the album and are struggles the band attempts to address further in songs like “Anti-Summersong,” in which lead singer Colin Meloy laments the expectation that his music fit a specific mold (“I’m not going on / Just to sing another summersong”). Even the downbeat and introspective “12/17/12,” which finds Meloy expressing guilt over his own paternal joy in the wake of unspeakably tragic Sandy Hook shooting (“Here with my heart so whole / While others may be grieving / Think of their grieving”), speaks to a measure of uncertainty about what we’re even doing here. It’s strong enough for a seventh album, but it doesn’t quite reach the peaks of some of the band’s earlier work.
Best Song: “Make You Better”
4. Castaways and Cutouts (2002)
This is the Decemberists’ debut album, and while the band’s final lineup hadn’t yet been established, Castaways and Cutouts does a fine job of establishing the band’s oft-derided basic sound of “sea shanties for English majors” (see: extended literary ‘No, YOUR mother’ joke “A Cautionary Tale”). It also features some of their catchiest tracks, including the toe-tapper “July, July!,” and the endlessly singable “The Legionnaire’s Lament”. It also established the band’s precedent of tackling dark subjects right out of the gate, as the lead track on the album, “Leslie Anne Levine,” is about a stillborn infant, and the aforementioned “A Cautionary Tale” describes a mother’s midnight… proclivities to provide for her children. Fun for the whole family!
Best song: “The Legionnaire’s Lament”
3. The Crane Wife (2006)
Initially planned as a concept album based on a Japanese myth, The Crane Wife was the Decemberists’ first attempt at a rock opera. When that approach didn’t coalesce, the album was reworked, and only “The Crane Wife 1 & 2” and “The Crane Wife 3” really remain from that initial concept. The songs (actually played out of order on the track listing) tell the story of a man who discovers a wounded crane and nurses it back to health, only for it to turn into a woman, whom he later marries. It’s honestly for the best that the album stops there with its rock opera aspirations; sacrificing a unifying theme allows for more musical variety and a lot more listenability. The album is rounded out with songs like “The Island,” a 12-minute suite that builds on the long-form aspirations of “The Crane Wife 1 & 2,” and “O Valencia,” a fun Romeo and Juliet pastiche with a goofy Wes Anderson-inspired video (the extended edition features some very silly acting). Otherwise, this is an all-around solid blend of the Decemberists’ signature style, interspersed with some of their best work to date.
Best Song: “O Valencia”
2. Her Majesty The Decemberists (2003)
Full disclosure: The Decemberists’ sophomore album was the first time I’d actually heard the band, and from that first spin of “The Soldiering Life” I was immediately hooked. As far as I’m concerned, this is an almost nonstop parade of hits. While I’m not the biggest fan of “Shanty for the Arethusa” or “As I Rise,” pretty much everything in between is exceptional. There’s the blossoming romance of “The Soldiering Life”; the strangely listenable, lilting ode to voyeurism that is “Billy Liar” (“Billy Liar’s got his hands in his pockets / Staring over at the neighbors, knickers down”); and even the rambling “I Was Meant for the Stage,” in which Meloy sings the virtues of treading the boards for a living (as a one-time aspiring actor, you can see how this song might speak to me). At almost an hour long, none of the songs overstay their welcome, and even the two 7+ minute tracks feel like they last just long enough. Los Angeles may be a “ditch of iniquity and tears,” according to “Los Angeles, I’m Yours,” but Her Majesty The Decemberists is a delight from beginning to end.
Best Song: “I Was Meant for the Stage”
1. Picaresque (2005)
Even as I struggled with where to put the other albums, I always knew Picaresque was going to be number one. I think it’s the perfect distillation of the Decemberists as artists, and arguably the best album they’ve ever released. Like Her Majesty the Decemberists before it, each track on Picaresque is better than the one that precedes it, and it all culminates in the gloriously melodramatic ballad “The Mariner’s Revenge Song,” the name of which doesn’t really do it justice. This song is peak Decemberists, a sweeping tale of betrayal, love, and vengeance on the high seas that begins and ends in the belly of a whale. It’s also one of the most fun songs to see the band play live, since they encourage the entire audience to scream along in agony when the mariner’s crew is devoured. Trust me, it’s exhilarating. Otherwise, “16 Military Wives” is a deliriously fun protest song, with a hilarious video that casts the band as private school students, in an obvious homage to Wes Anderson’s Rushmore; “The Sporting Life,” an ode to nerds forced to play sports with a killer drum beat; and “The Engine Driver,” a mournful paean to the toll exacted by unrequited love that bleeds ever so subtly into the subsequently delightful “On The Bus Mall”. The closing number, “Of Angels and Angles,” is a little slow, but it functions as a beautiful denouement following the chaotic, delirious climax of “The Mariner’s Revenge Song”. Trying to choose a favorite among this album’s murderer’s row of songs is almost impossible for me. Picaresque is easily one of my favorite albums of all time.
Best Song: “The Mariner’s Revenge Song”
BONUS ROUND: The Tain EP (2004)
The Tain is an EP that takes the form of a single 18-minute song suite, and it’s a must hear. Just wait until you get to the accordion solo, because it’s — wait, where are you going? It’s great, I promise!
This article originally ran December 2017, on Narrativity.com, and precedes the release of the Decemberists’ 8th studio album, I’ll Be Your Girl.
