The Hazards of Love

          The Decemberists released their fifth album yesterday (Tuesday, March 24, 2009). The album, titled The Hazards of Love, is one continuous song with 17 titles for different parts. If this sounds at all confusing, the album is one long story, the music never stops, when the tempo and topic of the story change, so does the track. The different titles can be looked at like different chapters of the story. Starpulse.com describes it as," A 17-song suite (think one continuous song with track ID's peppered throughout for sanity's sake) about a girl named Margaret, shape shifters, forest queens, and fairytale treachery, Hazards of Love is ambitious, pretentious, obtuse, often impenetrable, and altogether pretty great.” A 1966 EP by Anne Briggs inspires the album and its title. The album, much like their 2006 album The Crane Wife, is a great combination of boot-stomping drum beats, melodic yet head-banging guitars, enchanting vocals, and thrilling lyrics. The band is able to keep the listener on the edge his seat and singing the songs all day. The Decemberists have a way of telling a story like no other band has done before. The band’s lead singer, Colin Meloy, has a way of incorporating Shakespearean themes into rocking guitar songs. This band is unique.

The song of the day is the Decemberists' "O Valencia" from their album The Crane Wife, and has a West Side Story and Romeo & Juliet theme.