The Decemberists return with bare-bones LP<<Music News

If you’ve followed Portland indie-folk collective theDecemberiststhroughout their decade-long career,  you would know that the band, largely inspired by frontman Colin Meloy’s penchant for epic storytelling dynamics, tends to work in grand fashion. Case in point is 2008’s 17-part rock-opera composition,The Hazards of Love. However, according to aninterviewwithSPIN, Meloy suggests that the band’s newest album,The King Is Dead(for which the album cover and tracklisting were recently revealed), will be pared down and get back to the group’s simplified folksy roots.

“I was trying to challenge my normal impulses a bit, keeping things short and more concise,” Meloy said of the album, which was recorded in a desolate Oregon barn.“I just wanted to write some pretty songs.”

In an official press release, Meloy explained his evolution as a songwriter, which has led him back to simple Americana-esque melodies.“Over the last 11 years or so, since I moved to Portland, I feel like I’ve been mining mostly English traditions for influence,” Meloy said.“I guess I’ve kind of come back to a lot of the more American music that got me going in the first place– R.E.M. and Camper Van Beethoven and all these bands that borrowed from more American traditions like Neil Young and the Byrds.”

Perhaps it’s fitting then that the band enlisted the help of R.E.M.guitarist Peter Buck for the new LP. The iconic axman plays on three of the album’s 10 songs.

The band has released the first single from the album,“Down by the Water,” which sees Meloy reuniting with a long-lost friend: His harmonica.“I thought it’d be fun to try again,” he says.“Adding a harmonica— it has a rank-and-file sort of 80’s cow-punk thing to it. That was a nice color to add.” You can check out Meloy’s mouth organ skills on “Down by the Water” by downloading it for free righthere.

Check out the tracklisting forThe King Is Deadbelow.

“Don’t Carry It All”
“Calamity Song”
“Rise to Me”
“Rox in the Box”
“January Hymn”
“Down By the Water”
“All Arise!”
“June Hymn”
“This Is Why We Fight”
“Dear Avery”

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