The Brag

The Decemberists
The King Is Dead
Third Man Records/ Capitol
****

No one is ever surprised when they find out that Colin Meloy, The Decemberists’ frontman, majored in creative writing at university. At their best, his songs are novellas set to music, with a rich cast of characters and plots that ebb and flow with the tune.

So really, the only thing that is surprising about The Decemberists making a country album is that it took them until their sixth. But this isn’t Nashville bootscootin’ country music; this is more like what Bob Dylan once described as “his kind” of country music, about “real people, real emotions, and real problems.” It’s Justin Townes Earle’s territory, and Gillian Welch’s; Meloy’s oft-florid writing is at its double-distilled finest here, and you would have to be a hardy soul indeed not to be moved.

This band have always had their roots in American and Celtic folk melodies, and the mix of slower numbers and more up-tempo fare really gives them a chance to shine. ‘All Arise!’ is a standout, as jaunty fiddles blaze away over a rhythm The Band would be proud of, but the deft touch is required – and achieved – on the beautiful ‘Rise To Me’, or ‘June Hymn’.

Meloy’s voice really comes into its own here as well; country is a genre suited to voices that are expressive, rather than overly polished. And the album is only forty minutes long – it never outstays its welcome – so when it ends all you want to do is play it again, Sam. Maybe a couple of times.

Country music gets a bad rap for stupidly large hats and ostentation. But when it is as beautifully written as this, it’s impossible to deny.

Hugh Robertson