ENTERTAINMENT

'The Two Thrones'-a real prince of a game
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Decemberists' new album 'The Crane Wife' wins under Capitol Records

By Moses Whitaker
mwhit13@highlands.edu
Staff Writer

- Music Review -

The Decemberists' newly released album titled "The Crane Wife" will definitely not disappoint any old fans and is accessible enough to energize new ones.

The Decemberists have already built a pretty stable career without having a label. "The Crane Wife" is the band's first release under a label, and fans feared that the change would dilute the band's sound and quite possibly make the album a flop. 

While "The Crane Wife" might not be their best album, it might be the most impressive album to come out so far this year. The Decemberists brought in fellow band Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla to produce on the album. 

What makes this album so impressive is that it is the harbinger of a new genre called indie-prog. Essentially, indie music is reminiscent of much older music in which the songs can carry themselves for more than ten minutes and still be enjoyable. The best example of this is a song titled "The Island" which clocks in at about 12.5 minutes. 

A telltale sign of prog in music would be a keyboard solo amped up higher than the guitars. It would be easy to make a Led Zepplin comparison, but it would also be misleading.

From start to finish this album is lush with sound and texture. The lead singer, Colin Meloy, uses interesting wordplay in his lyrics. Every song on the album is a story, which in part makes it folk music as well. 

The only really weak points on the album are the simpler acoustic songs, but the album easily picks up its slack.  While the acoustic songs are weaker, they are also more than tolerable. 

The Decemberists' first album under Capitol Records sounds just like a Decemberists album would otherwise, but the sound quality is better.