Hazards of Love - Decemberists

This album is so good it makes me cry. To call it ambitious would be an understatement, as it aims to tell a complete fairy tale, employing a wide variety of musical styles, instruments and vocals along the way. In doing so, it also incorporates traditional folk concepts and some awesome guest appearances. As a rock piece, this would happily be called a concept album. As a folk piece, it features some great songs and ideas. As a comprehensive package, it does much more. As is usually the way with soundtracks (as this is in some ways - in fact a complete film piece was used as a backdrop for a couple of special live shows), the central theme is ...  Read the complete review

A few years ago, my then girlfriend, introduced me to a band named the Decemberists, and their then current album, "Picaresque". Infused with a swanky sea-shanty feel, I fell in love with the band, and the album became quite a favourite of mine for some time. They followed it up with "The Crane Wife", in 2006, which had a similar feel to it, and was crammed with another host of awesome songs, which I was able to see live, when they came to the Junction in Cambridge. I didn't realise that they had a new album out. It wasn't until reading various reviews on the NME website, that I noticed that in March, they had released "Hazards of ...  Read the complete review