#14 on the 2018 Bacon Top 31 — The Decemberists

I'll Be Your Girl by The Decemberists

The Decemberists are a band I don’t know how to dislike. They’ve released four albums since I started the Bacon Top 31, and each one has been featured prominently: #18 in 2015, #3 in 2011, and all the way up at #2 in 2009. And now in 2018, their 8th album, I’ll Be Your Girl here at #14. And honestly, none of these last four albums are as great as their first four albums, all of which I still listen to at least once a year. Chances are more than one of those earlier albums would have been at #1 if the Top 31 had existed that year. But sadly it didn’t, so I’m left chronicling their later, less exciting but no less great output, and that’s squarely where this new album lies.

By now, nearly 20 years into their career as a band, The Decemberists have figured out what works for their brand of historical fiction rock. Lead singer Colin Meloy’s voice, affected and a bit too high to be considered “good” is always at the forefront of fantastically orchestrated and produced prog rock. What used to be sad stories about sad characters has taken a turn in this new album, with songs from a much more personal stance. Lines like “Oh, for once in my life could just something go right?” “Everything, everything, everything, everything, everything, thing, everything, everything, everything, everything, everything is awful” or the coup de gras:

I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I've been so long lonely and it's getting me down
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how

These are not thinly-veiled metaphors for difficulty. This is blatant, painfully obvious suffering, and it’s glorious. As the cherry on top, The Decemberists worked with photographer Autumn de Wilde to create a fantastic video for their song “Once in my Life,” shown above, which de Wilde used as a visual love letter to her 7'2" brother Jacob, and the troubles he experiences as he goes through life. It’s beautiful and sad and heartwarming all at the same time.

We’re all suffering through life in this presidency of awful, and the Decemberists are here to help you sing about it at the top of your lungs. Will I want to listen to this album forever? Probably not. But for now, in a time like today, this is perfect. Give it a listen and hear for yourself, you may find it helps you as much as it’s helped me.

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15. The More I Sleep the Less I Dream by We Were Promised Jetpacks
16. Joy as an Act of Resistance by IDLES
17. Hell-On by Neko Case
18. Superorganism by Superorganism
19. Living in Extraordinary Times by James
20. Thank You for Today by Death Cab for Cutie
21. Black Panther: The Album by Kendrick Lamar
22. Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film) by Thom Yorke
23. Merrie Land by The Good, the Bad & the Queen
24. Room 25 by Noname
25. WARM by Jeff Tweedy
26. God's Favorite Customer by Father John Misty
27. Vessel by Frankie Cosmos
28. For Ever by Jungle
29. Twerp Verse by Speedy Ortiz
30. Remain in Light by Angélique Kidjo
31. This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet by Moonface

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2009-2017 Top 31s

#18 on the 2015 Bacon Top 31

What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists

Oh how the mighty have fallen. From #2 in 2009, to #3 in 2011, and now all the way down to #18 for this year’s Top 31, The Decemberists are still great amongst most of the music being produced today. But compared to themselves, they’ve done better.

What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World has some fantastic moments, and some great music videos that go along with them. And I’ve posted about all of them over the past year. Check out the video for “Make You Better,” starring Nick Offerman; or “Cavalry Captain,” which was a video, a phone number to call, and a few other odd turns, all used to promote the off-shoot EP Florasongs, which also came out in October of this year; or the cream of the crop, “A Beginning Song,” as a simple lyric video, downplaying the visuals to allow the beauty of the music to shine through.

Thanks to all those earlier posts, and for lack of a new music videos to post, I’ve instead placed a strange video from Jimmy Kimmel Live above (edit: apparently they took the video down, so instead I’ve put up a different video for your enjoyment), where the Decemberists performed a handful of off-the-cuff clips, words provided by YouTube comments. It’s quite funny at times, but the snark is heavy. The band is not new to snark, but the opening song to What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, “The Singer Addresses his Audience” is so snarky it almost spoiled the whole album for me. The song takes to task the super-fan, as well as any band that has to “sell out” to make a living. It’s the worst kind of hipster uppityness, and it’s unflattering.

Overall, there are many redeeming things about the album, if you’re able to get past the opener. Once a band gets to seven albums, you can’t expect that each new album will be better than the last. There will be lulls. And if your lull still puts you at #18 in the Top 31 (and the 2nd three-peat act this year), you’re still doing alright.

If you’re not yet familiar with The Decemberists, I suggest starting with literally any other album of theirs before diving into this one. But if you’ve liked The Decemberists in the past, I can say with confidence you’ll like this one, too. Give it a whirl.

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19. Untethered Moon by Built to Spill
20. Viet Cong by Viet Cong
21. The Magic Whip by Blur
22. Savage Hills Ballroom by Youth Lagoon
23. Not Real by Stealing Sheep
24. Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats
25. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon
26. Dark Bird is Home by The Tallest Man on Earth
27. Gunnera by Pfarmers
28. Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair by Ricked Wickey
29. To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
30. Live in Seattle by Moufang / Czamanski
31. High by Royal Headache

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Past years’ Top 31s

Decemberists — Cavalry Captain

It began yesterday, with a strange Instagram post by Decemberists’ lead singer, Colin Meloy, an animation that featured what appeared to be a religious revival of sorts, with Meloy as the lead evangelist. Underneath, the caption read:

"YOU" ARE ETERNAL CALL 971-23-ALIVE

So this morning, when I came across the post, and without any other information, I called the number. The recording on the other end began with a small clip from the song “Cavalry Captain,” from the band’s 2015 release What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, and then the voice of Meloy posing as “CM,” an evangelist with a message of love and finding your place in the universe. At the end of the recording, the listener was told to “to leave their most ardent wishes” after the tone.

Then later in the morning came the email from the Decemberists’ mailing list, with the same text as was spoken by Meloy in the phone recording. All of this seemed like a strangely timed release of even stranger material, promoting a record that’s already quite a few months old. But then I found the hook, in the caption for the video above, which reads:

We are all Decemberists. Please join us. Call 971-23-ALIVE to find your place in the universe. #Decemberism New EP 'Florasongs' available now.

So there you have it. A bizarre, excessive marketing push for a new EP from your favorite baroque pop band out of Portland, OR. Hop to it.

The Decemberists — A Beginning Song

I can’t get this song out of my head. It’s been stuck there for a week now. It took a little while for me to discover it, and then for it to plant itself deep in my brain, as it’s the final song on the brand new album from The Decemberists, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World. But it‘s also the best song on the fantastic new album from these Portland indie-rock stars. The album comes out Tuesday, January 20.

One question about the video: where are the string performers? There’s clearly at least one cello prominently playing throughout the song, and at the very end of the song, what sounds like a full string quartet comes in to fill out the song. Let’s see the string players!

The Decemberists — Make You Better

After a long break, the baroque pop outfit The Decemberists have a new album coming out January 30, 2015, called What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World. The hype machine is in full swing, and they’ve released a video for the first single from the album, “Make You Better.” Directed by Bill Fishman, the video stars Nick Offerman as the German host of a fictional performance show (a la The Ed Sullivan Show) called “The Old Blue Rock Palace Show.”

The entire video is a study in bizarreness. I’m a big fan of The Decemberists, but this video may be pushing the “Portlandia Hipster” envelope a little too far. The song isn’t one of their best, but even their worst song is better than most. The band is also embarking on a tour in the new year. Definitely get out and see them if you can.

UPDATE: Rob Lifford, friend of the Review, provided more insight to the weirdness. Apparently the video is a direct parody of an infamous taping of the band Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show performing on the German television show Der Musikladen in 1974. Watch the whole thing. It’s a hilarious trainwreck.

#9 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

White Lighter by Typhoon

Do you like the lush sound of an orchestra, complete with horns, stringed instruments, and percussion and/or the inherent pain and suffering heard in every word Bright Eyes ever sang? Then you will like Typhoon. No, Conor Oberst is not in the band, but Typhoon’s lead singer, Kyle Morton, sings quite like him, with an amazing amount of emotion dripping off of every syllable.

Morton is one of 11 people in the band. Yes, eleven. There are three horns, and two each of guitars, violins, and drummers. I’ve seen the band cram onto a too-small stage while managing to find room for two full drum kits (usually front and center) as well as the rest of the amps — let alone 11 people. It’s quite a feat.

The benefits of touring with a band this size are obvious. Too often you hear these amazingly rich albums with horns and strings, but then the live experience is significantly diminished by either a) the strings and horns are recorded and played back via the push of a button, or b) the arrangements are modified significantly to accommodate a smaller touring band. Sometimes these new arrangements are quite good, and it’s nice to hear songs reimagined for the live stage, but Typhoon brings the real deal. What you hear on the album is faithfully restored on stage, with a mixed group of eleven late-20s/early-30s happy hipsters from Portland, bouncing and giddily playing to their hearts content.

I define their music as a derivative of “Americana,” a la Head and The Heart, or the overplayed hand-claps of The Lumineers or Of Monsters and Men. But where those bands stick to the road previously traveled, Typhoon chart their own course. These songs are complicated, with orchestration that would amaze the squarest of symphony goers. And Morton’s lyrics of heartache and the pain of everyday life, sung with the conviction of apparent autobiography, are beautifully touching. There are similarities in the notes to bands like The Decemberists (also from Portland) — not in subject matter or voice, but in rich layers of sound and an educated definition of what makes for a good composition.

This album, White Lighter, is the band’s fourth full-length. I discovered their 2010 album too late to put it on the Calendar that year (it would definitely have been on there), but their 2011 EP A New Kind of House made the list in 2011, at #23. If Morton’s voice doesn’t immediately put you off, I believe there’s something in this album for everyone. Give it a listen, buy it, and then wear out the grooves in the record, as I’m sure I will be doing over the next decade or so.

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10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

2012 Musical Bacon Calendar
2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

Here’s Colin Meloy, Jenny Conlee and Nate Query from the Decemberists, along with Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie, and Peter Buck from R.E.M. performing R.E.M.’s “You Are the Everything” at a fundraiser held in Portland this past Wednesday night. It’s safe to say I would have killed to have been at this event, had I known about it.