The Crane Wife — The Decemberists
Capitol
2006
Rating:


The Decemberists' "The Crane Wife" takes its name from a Japanese folk tale, features two songs approximately 12 minutes in length and one of them contains the lines, "Affix your barb and bayonette / The curlews carve their Arabesques." Needless to say, "The Crane Wife" isn't for everybody.

Yet in many ways the album is The Decemberists' most accessible to date, surpassing 2005's wondrous "Picaresque". Like "Picaresque", "The Crane Wife" features Colin Meloy's literate tales of sailors, murderers, scoundrels and star-crossed lovers. Meloy's songs contain less of their twee whimsy, however, thanks to the muscular musicianship on display. This time, the stories of Victorian murders ("The Island") and ill-fated cranes (the three title tracks, which form a nearly 16-minute opus) are matched by the spectacular work done by the band when Meloy doesn't go too ornate and prog-ish.

Posted Friday, December 22, 2006

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/decemberists/crane.wife