The Crane Wife
Capitol raised a few eyebrows when they signed indie stalwarts the Decemberists. There's nothing blatantly commercial about the Portland quintet, from Colin Meloy's quavery voice and hyper-literate lyrics to the band's wide-ranging music, which encompasses baroque pop, prog rock, and dozens of other styles. Then again, he did once sing, "I was made for the stage," and those who've seen the group live know this to be true. Sure, they're storytellers, but they're entertainers, too--just not in the Top 40 sense. Never ones to play it safe, their major label debut takes its inspiration from a Japanese folk tale. It travels from the Replacements-style balladry of "The Crane Wife 3"--which joins words like "Each feather it fell from skin/'Til threadbare while she grew thin" to the melody from "Here Comes a Regular"--to the ELP hoedown of three-part epic "The Island" to the haunting duet between Meloy and Laura Veirs on "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)." It's an impressively eclectic effort that somehow manages to avoid sounding scattered. Co-produced by Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie) and Tucker Martine (the Long Winters), the Decemberists' fourth full-length is richer, less immediately catchy than its predecessor (there's nothing as bouncy here as Picaresque's "Sixteen Military Wives"). It's also a deeper work that resists snap judgments. Some records hit you over the head with their brilliance, others need time to percolate. Time will tell if The Crane Wife is the Decemberists' best album--it's certainly their most ambitious so far. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
The Crane Wife Accessories
 Wincing the Night Away
Picaresque
The Reminder
Neon Bible
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Castaways and Cutouts
Sky Blue Sky
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Icky Thump
Her Majesty
The Crane Wife Reviews
This is a good little story telling indie album. I gotta admit though, that my favorites are the radio ready O, Valencia and Summersong. Would probably recommend just downloading your favorites.
When a song is more than a song, it is The Decemberists. Unbelievably well orchestrated, carefully mixed, and clever beyond belief, The Crane Wife made me a lifelong fan of The Decemberists.
Perhaps it is just as good of a place to start not because it includes their best songs (it doesn't), but because it is where the band itself started. Like each previous Decemberists release, this is a song-based album pillared by a couple of magnum opuses. In fact, Colin Meloy and company push the envelope even further. However, the last verse seems to be a botany lesson, with references to Vavlilov, solanumm, and asteraceae.
The chill-inducing Part III of the song is adorned by a gently-picked classical guitar and deep strings. "The Crane Wife 3" is a sparkling pop song, with a wonderfully singable refrain and a bubbly bass line that tickles the listener's ears. This is another tour de force by a band that isn't ashamed of its instrumental prowess. In fact, I am tempted to take back what I said about their debut album, Castaways and Cutouts. "Come and See" is surprisingly hard-rocking, thanks to Black Sabbath-like power chords, which at the end segue into the 100% Jethro Tull Hammond organ that open and fortify "The Landlord's Daughter". But to those who expected nothing less than another masterpiece from The Decemberists, it is golden.
"Summersong" brings back the band's trademark accordion, as well as the oft-used nautical imagery, including "watery graves", "dead sailors", and summer getting "swallowed by a wave". Meanwhile, the band grows some funk of its own on "The Perfect Crime #2", which features cool images like "It was like a ticker-tape parade/when the plastic on the safe was blown away". "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)" is a sweet duet between a Civil War soldier and his wife, whose part is sung by singer/songwriter Laura Veirs. (Bit of trivia: Although he never appeared on record with them, Sabbath's Tony Iommi briefly served as Tull's guitarist before being replaced permanently by Martin Barre). But still, the aesthetic that has made The Decemberists arguably the most unique new band of the 2000s has not been compromised a single iota.
The amazing thing about The Crane Wife isn't that it is indisputably every bit as good Picaresque. In between the album's two long songs comes an interesting mix of genres. These concerns might have been deepened by the fact that the band had signed to a major label, which has been known to tame a band's signature sound for the sake of pulling aboard a greater bounty. At this point, each album is like a new chapter in a book that one cannot put down and can't wait to pick up again once one does. While "Sons & Daughters" is good song and an effective closer, it might have benefited by being about half as long as its five minutes. Typically, a Decemberists album would end with a very short, less-showy number. "O Valencia." is, like "We Both Go Down Together" from Picaresque, a tragic story of star-crossed lovers that is driven forward by a foot-stomping rhythm similar to something from an early R.E.M. "The Crane Wife 1 & 2", which appears nine songs later as the requisite next-to-last-track epic, tells of how the narrator first came upon a crane that has been shot down by a bow and arrow.
While her voice and lyrics such as "though our skin may not touch skin" are wee bit precious, this song shows that The Decemberists, like their semi-kindred spirits Belle & Sebastian, benefit greatly from the use of female vocals. "When the War Came" brings back the 70s hard-rock riffs that appeared in "The Island". As indicated by its attached numeral, this song tells the end of The Crane Wife story. Moreover, the progressive rock leanings that always lurked, Jaws-like, beneath the surface of their music now come crashing through like the giant whale from a song on their previous album. The deafening silence of cash registers not ringing is probably disappointing to the label. The bombastic, impeccably-timed instrumental breaks in this section are straight off the 1972 Jethro Tull album Thick As A Brick. Here, like in so many archetypal stories of any culture, the protagonist's greed and curiosity overcome him and he loses what is most dear to him. After rescuing it, he finds himself rewarded when it appears to him one evening in the form of a beautiful woman.
As surprising as it might be, the wildly ambitious Decemberists still haven't released an album that pales by comparison to what came before it. It is that it is arguably better. The epics that were once between seven and nine minutes long now run for eleven and twelve minutes. Following on the heels of three great albums, each one better than the previous, fans of The Decemberists could easily have wondered if the band could pull of the same feat with The Crane Wife. This section's delicious lyrics, especially the opening ones, are reminiscent of the traditional Irish song "Whiskey in the Jar", which was re-done in more popular form by Thin Lizzy. Fortunately, like the husband of the titular character of the Japanese story upon which this album is based, Capitol Records was apparently not allowed to observe the band as it weaved its fourth album.
(Yes, I had to look up those three things). record. Granted, the songs might be a bit sweeter, even borderline precious at times. And the two three-part songs notwithstanding, The Crane Wife is not a concept album. Unlike a book, however, one can start with any inclusion in The Decemberists' catalog and appreciate it every bit as much.
"Shankill Butchers", which follows in the wake of its hard-rocking predecessor, ominously recasts a group of terrorists from Northern Ireland as bad guys who are out to get recalcitrant children in their beds at night. Four of the songs are highly-catchy pop numbers. Meloy uses his longer pieces for the same purpose that he has before: to tell stories. The other songs stand alone perfectly as individual tracks. "The Island" makes literary references to Shakespeare's The Tempest and Alfred Noyes' poem "The Highwayman". The lyrics "Our trust put in the government/They told their lies as heaven-sent" make it sound like a pretty standard protest song.
While more polished (think produced) than previous offerings, The Crane Wife still delights with Colin Meloy's signature voice and storytelling.
i've had this music for a while - recently picked it up again to give to a friend. it works on you. his excitement with "the crane wife" reflected my own: that the total piece is a journey of moods and situations, exclamations and saturnine musings. it's well worth the listen, and i think it's a great intro to the rest of the decembertists catalog of work. "the crane wife" has become one of those recordings for me. when i think about the music i've really liked over the last 10 years, it's been those recordings that worked on me over time, cropping up and getting tied to certain events, certain feelings.
|
