The Hazards of Love
Press play, wait for exactly twenty one seconds, and listen closely. Feel the eerie organ keys slowly begin to fade in one after another as the stage is set for what some critics are calling a “Rock Opera.”
I feel like I’ve been a fickle fan of the Decemberists since their 2001 EP 5 Songs. Unlike other fans, I wasn’t too upset by a three year break between albums. The Decemberists’ newest album, The Hazards of Love, dropped last week. The love story within The Hazards of Love is complicated and complied of a young girl, a fawn, a queen of the forest, a villainous rake and several unwanted children, which gives this opera an interesting twist.
The majority of the male ‘roles’ are supplied by front man and lead vocalist, Colin Meloy, while Shara Worden of the band, My Brightest Diamond, and Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond guest star as the female ‘roles.’
Although the album is meant to be a story and each piece is made to follow the next, I would argue that, “The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)” is the most impressive track on the entire album.
The Hazards of Love is a beautiful creation. However, with the lack of the catchy singles like those from previous albums as well as the long wait since their last album release, I fear it will struggle to uphold the following for which the Decemberists has been long known to carry.
Sphere: Related ContentMore from this category
- Art students put talent on display
- Animated rockers release new album, are stranded on beach
- Burlesque done right in GR
- Sherwood coming to Grand
More from this author
- Place your bids
- Put the us back in Aquinas
- Quake in Haiti hits close to home
- Mute Math breaks new ground
Subscribe to this author
I must respectfully disagree with Ms. Kirk re: her review of The Decemberists’ “The Hazards of Love.” As a longtime fan of the group, I am certainly biased in my defense of the new album, but The Decemberists are by no means my absolute favorite, and yet I am strongly convinced that the “The Hazards of Love” represents one of the greatest musical offerings of 2009 thus far, if not the best. The reviewer is right in terming the album a “beautiful creation,” but to largely dismiss the album based on its supposed “lack of catchy singles…as well as the long wait since their last album” is, I believe, an injustice to a kind of cohesive triumph not seen on a mainstream stage since perhaps Green Day’s “American Idiot.” This album, quite simply, should not and really cannot be evaluated as a collection of singles, but rather as an epic achievement of musical storytelling; “The Hazards of Love” is less a follow-up to the hugely successful “Crane Wife” as it is an independent venture – a triumph of experimentalism in music and storytelling.
That Colin Meloy manages to incorporate nearly every instrument, voice and technique available in telling his fantastic epic underscores the achievement of “The Hazards of Love.” Folk, rock, opera, and even Jack White-esque blues – they’re all here, and they’re all brilliant.