A fairly radical departure from the standard Decemberists sound, the band\u2019s eighth album finds them moving away from the old-timey indie prog-folk of their older records and veering into pop, rock and even new wave influences. <\/p>\n
For some, the move will seem like a radical shift a la Arcade Fire, but a listen to I\u2019ll Be Your Girl <\/i>as a whole finds instead Colin Meloy weaving his new influences into his trademark sound and approach. \u201cCutting Stone\u201d and \u201cTripping Along\u201d bring the band\u2019s established sound but with modern flair, providing a gateway to the Morrissey-isms of \u201cOnce In My Life,\u201d which may not win any awards for Best Lyrics but certainly sets the tone of the album from the outset.<\/p>\n
The strident, galloping \u201cYour Ghost\u201d brings a rock vibe akin to Muse, with layered vocals, keyboard sound effects and a guitar solo, all in less than three minutes. It\u2019s a little too offbeat (for normal standards, not for these guys, who live in offbeat) for mainstream radio play but alt-rock fans will love it. Better still is the radio hit \u201cSevered,\u201d a cheerful pop tune about a serial killer that rides an upbeat new wave drum pattern and sets it to both a synthesizer pattern and some Morricone Western-styled guitar. It\u2019s catchy and creepy.<\/p>\n
A guitar solo pops up again on \u201cSucker\u2019s Prayer\u201d and \u201cEverything is Awful\u201d; other than on Hazards Of Love<\/i>, I don\u2019t remember the electric guitar being so prominent in the Decemberists milieu. Things then shift into Iggy Pop territory with \u201cWe All Die Young,\u201d in which Meloy sneers the title track, children chant in the background and a truly wonky solo. If Iggy hears it, I hope he\u2019s proud. The album then does a 180 into the solemn \u201cRusalka, Rusalka\/Wild Rushes,\u201d an eight-minute epic dirge that layers on the instruments and voices as it progresses through the first part before veering into the acoustic-guitar-led second part. The best parts of the story-song recall the classic Decemberists albums of the late 2000s.<\/p>\n
For many artists, an album with this many sounds would feel disjointed, but Meloy and the band find their own style and approach throughout the 43-minute run time. I\u2019ll Be Your Girl <\/i>pulls strength from what has come before but expands and relaxes the band\u2019s heretofore Serious Approach. The compelling end result is as much fun as anything they\u2019ve ever done and is, in all honesty, the band\u2019s best work since 2009\u2019s Hazards of Love<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9567],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-45273","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-decemberists","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45273"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45273"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}