The Hazards Of Love

If you're anything like me, your listening tastes slide back and forth between exploring new music and sinking into stuff you know and love. I know that financial constraints keep me from the first option more than I'd like, but I try and hear stuff I've never heard before. And sometimes, there is a happy medium - a band I know and enjoy, doing something more ambitious and unique than they have before. It's almost like a new band entirely. Sometimes their changes lose me a little - like with Coldplay's and Ray LaMontagne's newest efforts. But sometimes, the band is The Decemberists. And sometimes, The Decemberists release a prog-rock concept album that is currently the greatest thing I have to listen to, and sometimes it is entitled The Hazards of Love.

That doesn't happen all the time, though.

This is the best concept album I have ever heard. This is perhaps the best example of story-telling I have ever come across in musical form.


Here's a very brief plot summary:
William is found as an infant by the Forest Queen, who saves him and turns him into a shape-shifter. He meets and falls in love with Margaret in the forest, but the Queen's not cool with that. A Rakish Man abducts Margaret with the assistance of the Queen, William saves Margaret, and they are together forever.

Here are some musical highlights:
A Bower Scene - The first hint towards how heavy the band is going to be. If you've historically listened to The Decemberists, be warned that this album has a heavy-metal flavour, and it's not afraid to use it.
Isn't It A Lovely Night? - There aren't many songs in the band's canon that compare to this one for saccharine sweetness. But I am at heart a sentimentalist, and if you don't feel the love between the star-crossed, you won't feel much of anything - it's a love story, people!
The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid - It's got harpsichord, it's got hopefulness... and then. Oh, then. We get our first chance to hear the sorceress Queen. I've established that she is villainous, and the guitar riff is badass enough to underscore that - but it pales in comparison to the chilling, eerie vocal power of the Queen. To put it in terms of Disney villains, she sounds like something that Ursula and the Queen of Hearts would have nightmares about. Close your eyes, and she might look like the Queen from Snow White, but the size of Jafar-as-Genie.
The Rake's Song - This is the album's most radio-friendly song, which explains its being the single. As far as character sketches go, I don't know how Colin Meloy does it. The Rake is so callous, brazen, and sneering, you'll want to punch him out but you'll be afraid he'll knife you if you try. Let me just say that he kills children. You're welcome.
The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing - The Queen is back, and I have a weakness for how raw her musical themes are. If you know my listening habits, you'll know I don't listen to heavy metal - maybe Sabbath, in infrequent doses. But if you want or need to headbang, crank this shiz up. And you won't be able to NOT rock out.
The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!) - Don't listen to this just before going to bed, and for GOD'S SAKE, do not listen to this just before going swimming. Those kids that I talked about? The dead ones? Um... they're back. Give your imagination free rein and let yourself go mad. Just a side-note: waltz-time is the best way to sound creepy as hell.
The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) - Lyrically wisftul conclusion to this love story - while my first instinct is to look for a big, theatrical ending more suited to the epic nature of the album's internal tracks, I'm suddenly reminded that this is a love story. If I had human tear glands, they may very well activate at this point.

Musically, The Hazards of Love breaks out of The Decemberists' usual weaponry. Guitarist Chris Funk channels Yes! axe-man Peter Howe, and Jenny Conlee wails on the Hammond organ like she pulled a Rip van Winkle at a Deep Purple concert, and woke up in the studio. The guitars are crunchier and more effected than I have perhaps ever heard on a Decemberists record. I am nothing but impressed that these geek-rockers can pull the metal stuff off when they need to.

Yes, the blogs (not this one, but the... y'know, reputable ones) and reviews are calling this album a prog-rock effort. And I can understand where they're coming from, I suppose. It is characteristic of progressive rock to weave songs and albums into large, overarching storylines. But when I think of prog, I think of bands like Rush, Coheed & Cambria, and The Mars Volta - namely, those with heavy metal influence throughout. What The Decemberists have done is take those heavy colourations and dress them with the folk-rock sound they have been perfecting for years. There is no denying the lyrical prowess of frontman Colin Meloy. The plot of this album is sort of dense and definitely poetically worded; it might take you a few listens to get the finer touches. This goes back to the point I made at the outset; when a band can give me what I've always liked about them, but somehow twist it so that I get new and different meanings all the time, then they have earned a fan.

I give this album 10 cloven-hooved satyrs out of 10. And I'm giving you all 2 days to buy the album and listen to it in its entirety, whereupon you shall return here and tell me what you think. Go here! Go now!

Not To Go Off Or Anything...

So, I didn't watch the Grammy Awards a week and a half ago. I can't remember the last time awards given had anything to do with music I like. I've never based my listening on so-called popularity, nor have I ever wanted to watch an album or artist I really do like win. In short, the Grammys aren't important to me or the relationship I have with the music I enjoy.

I understand a lot of people need the shiny television shows to tell them what music to tune into. This is the well-managed aspect of the music business, and I don't begrudge the industry one bit for the big acts, the safe bets, in order to get attention. Not that it's helping album sales, but...

No, there is one thing in particular I wanted to point out about this year's awards show, and that is this: I have a problem with Coldplay. If you didn't watch, they won Song of the Year and Rock Album of the Year for Viva La Vida - for the single and album of the same name, respectively. My problem is with - don't think me a petty person - what the band wore.


If this looks a little familiar...


Hm.

Yes, Exhibit B is from the 1967 landmark album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Often called one of the best - or at least most important, pivotal, influential, whatever - albums in rock history. The front cover is iconic. The lyrics get plenty of people hopped up on finger-pointing when it comes to drug references, and also a plethora of "clues" to the famous "Paul is dead" rumours.

And as a cool side note, if you'll look at Paul's left arm here -


- the black badge is an O.P.P. (Ontario Provincial Police) flash. I live in Ontario. I PRACTICALLY KNOW PAUL MCCARTNEY!!

Right?

Anyway. What I get from Coldplay's wardrobe choice on television's most musical night is that they're ok with parallels being drawn between themselves and one of rock history's greatest bands and albums. I would politely like to point out that this is an untrue parallel to be drawn, and shame on Coldplay for doing so.

Oh, they're sorry for their costume choice, alright. Or they're being cheeky, and it's more of a, "Sorry, Sir McCartney, for being the new YOU! *cackle*" They haven't earned the right to dress like The Beatles. Hell, if Oasis hasn't done it, no one can. Coldplay, no album or song you've created can hold a candle to the Beatle legacy. I'm sorry - you are (or were) one of my favourite rock bands, but I know what's legendary and what isn't.

I just realized I haven't been recommending songs to listen to. Well, here's a good opportunity.

This deserves shiny militaresque outfits. (I can't vouch for the video component - but it's worth a watch.)

Left Out In The Cold(play)

Oh ho ho, that title makes me chuckle so. According to people who say so, producer Brian Eno - a hero of mine - and Coldplay are in the studio to work on material after last year's Viva La Vida. But he's decided that they will be, for now, leaving lead singer Chris Martin out of the picture.

That I like Brian Eno as a producer does not have a lot of bearing on this issue, since I don't know enough of his work to be a connoisseur or anything, but I sort of like the decision. From an instrumental point of view, it will be interesting for Jonny, Guy, and Wil to try a different atmosphere. One of Eno's famous Oblique Strategies at work? Perhaps.

All of this isn't to say that Chris Martin is becoming a bit of a distraction, exactly. And I still hold him in high regard - he's the reason I got into Coldplay in the first place. But his current role as THE face of Coldplay is a bit off from their original philosophy. When they started out in the late 90's, Coldplay was a pretty democratic band - drummer Wil Champion, especially, was vocal about Coldplay's music not being used in any advertisements. Of course, that's gone out the window now, hasn't it? They were always avid supporters of Make Trade Fair and Oxfam, but - through no fault of their own - it induces eye-rolling rather than fair-trade-making. And it is my humble opinion that their music has moved in a straight line from comforting, inviting, relatable music to over-produced, repetitive, self-congratulatory fluff. This isn't all Chris Martin's fault, but he doesn't give the impression that he's not the most important person in the band, and it's what you don't say that rings the loudest.

When Yellow came out, it changed pop music. We are 9 years beyond that single - my favourite of them all - and it all seems too easy for them now. They've never spoken like The Clash or Dylan, and they've never played like Yes! or Radiohead, but lately it doesn't seem to matter if they've anything to say at all. The critics are in their pockets, the awards are on their mantels. They earned the title of one of the era's top bands, and haven't much defended it.

I couldn't get enough of them when I first discovered Parachutes and A Rush Of Blood To The Head. Their Live 2003 album was my first music DVD purchased. X&Y was good without changing my world. But I have yet to listen to Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends all the way through. I haven't felt the need.

Will Eno's decision to de-Martinize the instrumental process pay off? Time will tell. Will Chris Martin reconsider his ridiculous retirement plan? His ego will tell. Will I rush to the store and buy whatever new material they come out with next? Well... breaking up is hard to do. I'm willing to listen, if they're willing to say something this time around.