EMI

The addition of Gillian Welch as a “backing voice” on a majority of these tracks signifies more than R.E.M. co-founder Peter Buck’s random mandolin and 12-string duties. It’s a decided shift in The Decemberists’ musical vision toward American country music. Singer Colin Meloy is still a stilted English major who enjoys turning phrases that would never pass a real person’s lips ( “The summer swells anon” ). This theatrical conceit made its progressive rock either ickier or more intense, depending on your pretension preferences. Here, with harmonica blaring and melodies that sound borrowed from a Harry Smith anthology and/or standard issue folk-rock bands of the 1960s, The members of the Decemberists offer their most consistent set since the band’s debut, Castaways and Cutouts.

A feature story on The Decemberists appears in the March issue of Relix.