S orti January 18, 2011 at Capitol / Rough Trade, The King Is Dead is the 6th group effort from Portland: The Decemberists .
album released 2 years after The Hazards of Love which received a mixed reception. I enjoyed this disc with a theme and a special atmosphere (this riff Tananananana !) Since he turned in a loop for weeks but I quickly realized the shortcomings of this CD: The concept of form- makes the album difficult to listen if you do not listen in the order and a draft, isolated pieces are much too low. So I waited a
Decemberists return to a more classic, an album and without particular structure.
The album title is an obvious reference to the Smiths' album The Queen Is Dead , one of the biggest influences of the singer-songwriter Colin Meloy. It has even been set up EP of covers of Morrissey solo.
Like The Hazards of Love which included one of the most beautiful voices of our time, Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), The King Is Dead has its guests: Peter Buck (Guitariste de R.E.M.) et la chanteuse d'alt-country Gillian Welsh .
Hello alt-country!
Tracklist :
1. Don't Carry It All
2. Calamity Song
3. Rise to Me
4. Rox in the Box
5. January Hymn
6. Down by the Water
7. All Arise!
8. June Hymn
9. This is Why We Fight
10. Dear Avery
Dès l'ouverture sur Don't Carry At All , one is greeted warmly by the harmonica of Colin Meloy, something he was not in the old albums. We recover the rich and typical of the group (violins, accordion etc ...) but we feel especially the presence of Peter Buck's acoustic guitar. Obviously it sounds like REM all over!
Singing secondary Gillian Welsh is alive and well and adds to the ambiance folk / alt-country group that clearly wants to create with this album. What's better than the alt-country singers of the most popular for this job then?!
pieces where Peter Buck is present ( Song Calamity and the single Down By The Water ) are certainly the best songs on the album: a totally catchy guitar and vocals by Colin Meloy who are still working well on me.
What I love everything from below: groups who mix the songs uptempo and slow songs well honey. The Decemberists must be one of the best bands in this niche there, listen to the debut album Castaways and Cutouts , it is really dreaming. So when
To Rise Me and Dear Avery are songs of Americana fairly quiet with the steelpedal / bottleneck in abundance: I absolutely love.
On January Hymn and Hymn June, Colin Meloy is alone on guitar and singing these songs full of emotions and with very little arrangements, as he used to do.
The group tried to change a bit but the emotions This Is How We Fight clearly has no place on this album, I find this piece out of context but it is not bad either. It would clearly have been out of place The Crane Wife on .
To listen on Spotify : Do not Carry At All, Calamity Song, Rise To Me, Hymn January, Down By The Water, June Hymn, This Is How We Fight
Verdict:
The King Is Dead is a good record, and being a big fan of alt-country scene U.S. I had to love this disc. The result is that I have less hooked at first listen this album than on the top 5 albums of the group who are killing from A to Z. .. Maybe I expected too much of a The Crane Wife bis.
T rop alt-country alt-country kills? I felt an atmosphere too stodgy in its completeness. blame the lack of electric guitar and epic tracks ("The Island or Sons & Daughters ). For example, to avoid this, Wilco add a tint to his experimental compositions.
The group's objective was to release an album with sounds 100% Americana / alt-country and the result is not so bad it, The Decemberists are not a group that played like that before (only Tarkio, the former group of Colin Meloy, sounded very alt-country).
Group Colin Meloy continues his discography without missteps, with rich sound that makes this group so pleasant to listen to and interesting to follow.
In any case, the group is still popular in the U.S., The King Is Dead having reached the age 1 on the Billboard 200 in its first week!
I now understand why, at the sight of their "success" European tour more like a European tour UK. They will make a move to Antwerp early March, and I would not miss it this time!
7 / 10
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