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Decemberists Review

I love the Decemberists. This fact makes objectively analysing any new offering from the band much like a parent surveying their child’s cacophonous crap-pile of pasta and glitter and smiling broadly, congratulatory, resisting the urge to delicately ask ‘What is it?’. And so in front of me sits a CD subtitled ‘A Single Series’ and although I know I won’t be able to help myself from loving it, I’m forced to ask ‘What is it?’

As a precursor to their forthcoming fifth full-length Hazards of Love it could be seen as merely marking time until that album’s release. More importantly as three individual singles, with a b-side a piece, it showcases the band to be more than the bombastic, thesaurus bashing balladeers that their last, and yet still brilliant, album The Crane Wife would have you believe. ‘Valerie Plame’ is a bouncy, ukulele-led ditty about the titular one-time CIA operative – a theme which has shades of older song ‘The Bagman’s Gambit’s tale of government informants, but where that ends with a string-led wig-out this climaxes with a joyous ‘Hey Jude’ style la-la-la-along.

Elsewhere ‘O New England’ is a beautiful, if fairly damning, portrayal of the area’s tourist attractions with idiosyncratic vocalist Colin Meloy declaring “I think I’d rather just wait in the car”. The remainder of the tracks are refreshingly simple in form and yet still demonstrate Meloy’s enchanting lyrical dexterity and it’s encouraging that he’s dialled back the florid verboseness he’s prone to – not that previous albums’ audacious rhymes like ‘And above all this falderal/On a bed made of chaparral’ should be something that the band should eradicate completely from their repertoire as it’s all part of their unique charm.

Of the six songs on offer here, only a pointless cover of The Velvet Underground’s ‘I’m Sticking With You’ would sound disappointing on a full-length release. And for this caring parent that’s a great relief – it makes it a lot easier when you don’t have to feign admiration of your loved-ones art.

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