Picaresque <\/i>is often cited at or near the top of any \u201cbest-of\u201d Decemberists album list, the start of their classic period and a refinement of the unique sound established in their debut. By this point\u2014their third album\u2014the Portland band had established its love of British folk, seafaring-inspired mythology, and storytelling chops, and the result was an indie rock band that sounded like no other. <\/p>\n
The beauty of this album is how it pivots from Victorian folk to rollicking indie rock to brooding dream pop with ease and confidence, investing care in the lyrics and remaining doggedly determined in its own path. If you have any tolerance for songs about old-timey sailors getting eaten by whales, or a parade with elephants carrying a child found in a river, or a barrow boy and a bagman, then you\u2019ll get the most out of this album. But even if not, there\u2019s enough here to convince you to give these guys a try.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Infanta\u201d crashes in with a wail and a strident, rolling drumbeat, concerning a lavish parade for what one assumes is a baby born to privilege, but is revealed at the end to be an unknown child found in a basket in the water. It\u2019s the second-most upbeat song here\u2014cheery, and nobody dies!\u2014and a good sign for what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n
Indie-loving outsider kids will be able to relate to \u201cThe Sporting Life,\u201d a jaunty rumination from the point of view of a student-athlete who just sustained an injury during a game and is looking around the playing field contemplating his life and taking things in: the narrator\u2019s father looking on in disappointment (\u201cAnd Father had had such hopes \/ For a son who would take the ropes \/ And fulfill all his old athletic aspirations \/ But apparently now there’s some complications\u201d), to the jock who beats the nerd who dared to play sports (\u201cAnd there’s my girlfriend arm in arm \/ With the captain of the other team \/ They condescend and fix on me a frown\u201d) to the coach who thinks the same thing (\u201cThere’s my coach he’s looking down \/ The disappointment in his knitted brow \/ \u2018I should’ve known,\u2019 he thinks again \/ \u2018I never should have put him in\u2019\u201d). The detail at the beginning of the score being 12-1 makes me think the narrator is a benchwarmer, a scrawny nerd (maybe a theater or band kid) who was put in at the end of the game and who still managed to screw up and hurt himself, much to everyone\u2019s disappointment.<\/p>\n
As good and relatable as that song is, though, \u201c16 Military Wives\u201d is even better, the most topical and current song Colin Meloy ever wrote, a song that isn\u2019t so much anti-war and anti-celebrity as it is a sarcastic, satirical take on how war and news is reduced to easy statistics, how celebrities are touted as experts, how higher education can be self-important and how Americans take whatever the la-de-da newsperson tells them while eating dinner, barely digests what they are told, and then goes about their life. Some great lines in the song, such as \u201cFifteen celebrity minds \/ Leading their fifteen sordid, wretched, checkered lives \/ Will they find the solution in time \/ Using their fifteen crispy moderate liberal minds,\u201d or \u201cEighteen academy chairs \/ Out of which only seven really even cares\u201d or \u201cIf America says it’s so, it’s so.\u201d The gut punch is that, of the sixteen military wives, only 12 of the husbands come home from the war, but this human cost is barely acknowledged because screen time has to be given to a B-list celebrity\u2019s opinion on the war instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Engine Driver\u201d and \u201cOn The Bus Mall\u201d are lovely acoustic pieces, reminiscent of mid-period R.E.M.; the latter concerns two runaways who learn to make a living by prostitution and eke out an existence in barrooms and pool halls and alleys, but who have each other through it all. That gloomy downturn in fortune is more keeping in line with Decemberists characters, and sets the stage for the nine-minute album closer \u201cThe Mariner\u2019s Revenge Song,\u201d a great sea shanty story song about a wicked rake of a sailor who leaves a widow heartbroken and crazy, and the widow\u2019s son who waits all his life to avenge her, and who finally learns to sail and chases the rake across the sea\u2026 until both boats are eaten by a whale. The creepy female vocals echo the dying widow\u2019s words to her son: \u201cFind him, bind him \/ Tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters \/ Drag him to a hole until he wakes up naked \/ Clawing at the ceiling of his grave.\u201d Straight out of Edgar Allen Poe, that is. The song ends with both men in the belly of the whale and the narrator\u2014the son\u2014telling the rake how their stories intertwine and then saying \u201cThese are the last words you\u2019ll ever hear,\u201d before the music takes over and speeds up to the climax. It\u2019s implied that the words are the same his mother told him, and that fact lends a whole creepy and compelling vibe to the song.<\/p>\n
After this, the Decemberists would make two concept albums, then a Tom Petty album, then lose their way for a bit, leaving Picaresque <\/i>as one of a kind in their discography. It\u2019s not perfect (\u201cEli, The Barrow Boy,\u201d \u201cThe Bagman\u2019s Gambit\u201d and \u201cFrom My Own True Love\u201d are pretty standard Meloy fare that don\u2019t reach the highlights here, and that drag the proceedings down), but the best songs here are among the best the band ever released, and if you\u2019re new to the band this is as good a place to start as any.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":34580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9567],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46427","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\/46427","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=46427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46427"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}