The Decemberists
The King Is Dead

The Decemberists strip down.

Having reached their sixth studio album, tested by a series of perhaps overly intricate releases and recovering from the unsuccessful (for the writer) "The Hazards Of Love", a complicated work too influenced by the British Progressive reminiscences, our band retreats to a farm in Oregon and creates a truly American album.

The group dives into a Folk sound that is not at all pretentious but rich in nuances, drawing heavily from artists like Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young, influences perfectly noticeable in the first single "Down by The Water", without forgetting their own roots. It becomes natural to compare it to "Castaways And Cutouts", of which this album can be considered the most accessible (and perhaps more mature) successor.

For forty minutes, we breathe an atmosphere of harmonicas, acoustic guitar and steel guitar, blending to form something akin to Bright Eyes’ "I’m Wide Awake", for an album that represents the less complex and more immediate phase of the Decemberists, who prove themselves quite adept at reinventing themselves.

Not unmissable, but very enjoyable.