Using the phrase "panoply of song" more than once is a mortal sin.

I realize the following will make 99% of Slog, and 100% of gus want to break up with me, but not only did I buy that CD at a Starbucks, but I actually like it, especially Down By The Water, overly refined or not.

What a terrific review. I've heard enough of the Meloy sound to last a lifetime.

(And Canuck, I'd forgive you anything. We'll always have Sergio.)

Hope it's better than the last two albums.

That's true, gus...O Sergio, the object of our great, unrequited love affair...if only he would look our way...

I wanted to like the new record more than I actually ended up liking it. However, I'm glad they're doing well. They seem like nice people.

I quite liked it, given that country is coded into a lot of their music, it seemed fairly inevitable to me that an album like this was coming. I did prefer the last two albums, but then again I quite like story-time with Colin Meloy.

@Gloomy Gus, I am soo giving your avatar the evil eye. I hope you can feel my jingoistic Portlander wrath through the intertubes.

About those first two sentences, ummm, wow.

samktg, I do feel it, and have always found the disapprobation of a Portlander to be quite enjoyable.

Evocative review, and quite apt. The rootsy country groove is an awkward bedfellow of Meloy's trademark "bachelor's degree in folklore" style.

It's really hard for me to understand how this band, who were interesting at first, but then became incredibly bland, repetitive, and whiny, could hold anyone's interest. They remind me of the worst years of Aerosmith and inspire immediate radio-lunge.

fuck the album. have your drunken aunt contact me, let the drinking begin........

Gus, I will subject you to faux anger and you will enjoy it. Decemberists grrr.

I like this record, haters be damned.

Did you all not get the memo? It's #1 in America; therefore, the Stranger must dismiss it as pedestrian. High standards for a paper priced comparably to the Penny Saver.

@ 3 - Finally found something wrong with you, Canuck: you buy your CD's at Starbucks.

Starbucks is a world-wide plague that has destroyed the concept of a proper cappucino (what's that meter-high layer of froth with chocolate chips on my coffee?). Please buy your CD's elsewhere. I mean, you're such a nice person otherwise...

@17, C'mon, this review wasn't all that harsh- Cienna said it was a good but overproduced album, which is fair.

The review probably could have focused more on the album, and less on the alcoholic aunt's bjs. The Decemberists are great. They put on an awesome show, and they're so NW. People here should be happy for their success. This review smacks of the Stranger always finding a way to piss on every parade.

Piss on every parade? But this isn't a particularly critical review, and the criticism Cienna makes is accurate. Sure, The Decemberists put on a great show, and I think they are great ambassadors for the PNW, and I'm happy to see them get recognition by a broader audience, but a record review isn't exactly the right place to discuss that.

Why not? The album is a culmination of something they've been building for years.

@21, are you actually offering that the Stranger writers are not group of jealous wallflowers who go out of their way to take down everyone who takes chances and makes something of themselves? In their defense, it's a perfect relection of their readership. Seattle is a city of cowards who are jealous of anyone who puts himself/herself out there.

No, I'm saying it's a bit over the top for you to say they are pissing on this parade. They are not infrequently harsh, or jealous, but here that's just not the case (though I wouldn't blame them if they were, given its been twenty years since Seattle's exported anything near as good as The Decemberists).

@17 -- You've got it the wrong way around. People aren't pretending it's bad because it's popular. They were pretending the earlier stuff was good because it wasn't.

I just can't stand that guy's voice. Maybe it's an acquired taste, like Randy Newman's or Tom Waits' voices are, but Meloy isn't in their league as a songwriter. I don't think I'll ever get used to his mush-mouthed bleating.

Did we read the same review? The sense I got (from the two sentences about the album itself) was that the album is fine, but "too polished for the country folk music it's paying tribute to", which keeps it from being great. No?

I liked The Crane Wife once I adapted to the stylistic shift to a heavier rock influence in a lot of the tracks, not so much Hazards of Love (obviously everything they did Picaresque and before was fucking gold). If you don't like the style (songs that tell stories; songs that involve instruments other than electric guitar, drums, a MacBook, and AutoTune; songs that involve any post-1930's technology; songs not mostly composed of the words "bitch", "money", "weed", and "yeah!"; etc.) or Meloy's voice, that's fair, I suppose, but to assert that The Decemberists are a bad instance of the emergent post-folk-rock genre(s) is crazy. That's like saying that Mischief Brew is bad folk-punk/gypsy-punk, or Robert Sarazin Blake is bad contemporary folk!

Number of words spent on fellating alcoholic aunt: 168
Number of words spent on review of Decemberists album: 71