THE DECEMBERISTS – THE KING IS DEAD
When Decemberist singer songwriter Colin Meloy told Peter Buck that he was writing a couple of songs that “ripped off” REM, Buck had the last laugh by offering to play on those songs. Buck’s subsequent recycling of his own riffs (just an extra note here, a slight shift there) on Calamity Song and Down By the Water has resulted in them being so similar to So Central Rain and The One I Love respectively as to be bastard siblings that have been locked away for the past two decades. When you are onto a good thing… Elsewhere Meloy’s Celtic country rock and wonderful tales beguile; and contributions of Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch are as exquisite as we now expect from those two. Echoes of Canada’s Great Big Sea can be heard in the Celtic pop influences, and even touches of Camper Van Beethoven at their prime. Peter Buck’s chuckling aside, The King is Dead has Meloy and company in top form, producing an album that should finally propel a tragically under-rated band to the spotlight they deserve.
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