So Stereogum released another top 10 list of songs by artist with which I'm intimately familiar, so naturally, I've got objections and corrections to make. Though this one isn't nearly as far a departure from my own preferences as their National list was earlier this year, there are still changes I'd like to see. So I'll make them!
The Decemberists can be a divisive band; their music isn't aggressive, but the very characteristics that can make them a novel and enjoyable listen are also the qualities that can turn other listeners off. Colin Meloy's distinctive vocals, bizarre instrumental arrangements, esoteric and hyper-educated lyrics can either combine to charm or push away, with little middle ground.
Luckily for me, my takeaway from that concoction is an adoring one - for the most part - and I've enjoyed listening to enough Decemberists material to try and put together my version of a top 10 list.
10. The Sporting Life
Album: Picaresque
A bouncy song about an emasculated athlete (it's never explicitly said, but I always imagined the protagonist a football player) who comes up short in a big spot on the field and the ripple effect of disappointment among those in attendance. From the lead's flighty girlfriend to his disenchanted father to frustrated coach, it's not the most true-to-sport song ever written (although it doesn't hold a candle to that line in The Postal Service's "Nothing Better." You know which one) but it captures the spirit of the scene in a fun way. Even if it's all at the expense of this crushed athlete.
9. This Is Why We Fight
Album: The King Is Dead
The Decemberists have made their mark on me with slower-paced anthems (we'll get to those), but this is a good example of a rallying cry done right. It's got a bit of heroic swagger to it in the first half, and then, after an instrumental interlude at about the three-minute mark, the song is stripped down to an acoustic guitar (and a single electric strum) before building back up, only to break down again into a (tamed) vocal war cry and accompanying drum raps. It's one of their finer uptempo moments.
8. The Bachelor and the Bride
Album: Her Majesty The Decemberists
To date, I'm still not 100 percent certain what the exact story of this song is. I understand it's about something of a troubled relationship - possibly even abusive - but the minutiae escape me even after 10 years. Normally, that'd be a detriment, but the exactness of the story takes a back seat to the way this song is structured and layered. Solemnly introduced with an acoustic guitar and the telling of a passed child, then joined by a traveling drum beat (a "carry on" mantra embodied in sound) and a morose synth backdrop. It's a bit heartbreaking to listen to sometimes.
7. Annan Water
Album: The Hazards of Love
The Hazards of Love is a failed concept album, a fantastical tale of love lost, redemptive rescue and (spoiler alert) Titanic-like end. It misses the mark in more places than I like, but where it manages to hit said mark most squarely is on this taken-out-of-context cut. It starts sharply when listened to solo (led in by the previous track's instrumentals) but otherwise stands well enough on its own even when taken out of the album's story. The basic gist is the story's protagonist is off to rescue his love from a captor, and is presented with a raging body of water standing between him and the way to her. The song is a plea to the river to calm enough to allow passage, with the promise of personal sacrifice in return for the favor. It's dark and exposes the end of the album's story before its time, but despite its strange pretenses (not uncommon in Decemberists songs) it manages to feel human and genuine, if a bit melodramatic.
6. The Engine Driver
Album: Picaresque
In the summer of 2006, I had a preposterous job. I worked in a cocoa powder processing plant in Swedesboro, NJ from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The early start meant waking up around 4:30-4:45 a.m. to get ready before making the 35-40-minute drive south from my folks' place in Cherry Hill. On many of those drives, cruising through an empty 295 under a pre-dawn sky, I found myself playing this song through a tape cassette adapter plugged into my boxy Zen jukebox. Few songs have captured a mood so perfectly. At the same time, this is a song about personal comfort, an acknowledgment that what you are may not be perfect, but lovable just the same. And if someone doesn't like that? Tough shit for them, not you.
5. The Tain
Album: The Tain
This might be cheating, but it's my list so to hell with rules. The Tain is, in reality, five songs combined into one on a single EP. Five distinguishable movements: drunken seaside bar shanty that goes from swaying to aggressive; a rain-soaked travelogue that catches flight at points; a creepy, female-sung verse that sounds lifted from some nightmarish carnival; a thatched overcoat punk ballad that leads into some of the prettiest, most soaring sounds the band has ever recorded. It's a strange journey that rewards every full listen.
4. The Mariner's Revenge Song
Album: Picaresque
There may be no song that better captures the spirit of The Decemberists as they are most widely known than this, a sprawling dirge of a parable told by its lead to a pursued quarry within the stomach of a whale that has swallowed them both. Yeah, really. The story gives the backstory, the motive for the pursuit, and inspires a bit of a rooting interest in this vengeful man.
3. 16 Military Wives
Album: Picaresque
I tend to stay away from most politically-charged tunes, but there's something funny about the bitten-tongue patriotism in Meloy's lyrics here. It also doesn't hurt that it's absolutely one of the most fun songs of the band's to listen to. It takes its fair share of pokes at the national way of doing things that still manage to ring surprisingly true, eight and a half years after its release.
2. July, July!
Album: Castaways and Cutouts
Mixed like a modern-day Beatles remaster with percussion and acoustic strings in one ear and electric strings in another, this song manages to be sonically unique even when it features one of the more typical instrument arrangements for this band (drums, guitars, bass, keyboard; no calliope or accordion or any of that!). Bonus: this song really isn't very political, but the YouTube uploader here decided to affix a picture of a butterfly with "eScoailist" beneath it, and that's made the video's comments hysterical, naturally.
1. On the Bus Mall
Album: Picaresque
Stereogum and I agree. Rather easily the best song in their catalog, this song combines the best of the band's musicianship and songwriting with touching, heart-rending lyrics of two companions' life on the road. Much in the way Interpol's "Untitled" kicks off Turn On the Bright Lights with music that defines its environment, that atmosphere of the companions' world here is set early: the empty, windy, rain-soaked street feeling carries in from the end of "Engine Driver" and lingers, lacing Meloy's lyrics with a dark night feeling that's simultaneously shiver-inducing and reminiscent of the warm blanket feeling you get while trying to avoid such things. It's beautifully done.
