All I remembered about the last album I heard from The Decemberists was that a few of their songs told excellent stories. Their entire new album “The Hazards of Love” is an epic love story told through beautiful lyrics and expressive musical arrangements.
It must be said, the first minute of this CD leaves something to be desired as it’s just silence. All that’s left to follow up for the song “Prelude” is a keyboard that sounds like it’s from a haunted house. I was positive this album was going to be truly horrible.
Suddenly, it has carried over to the next song, “The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone)” with beautiful acoustic guitar and vocals. The first character, Margaret is introduced. She comes upon a wounded fawn and tries to help it. Then, “the beast began to change” and Margaret ends up pregnant.
“Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)” has a major White Stripes vibe with female vocals. Margaret has gone to find her lover and does find him in “The Hazards of Love (Wager All)”. Then, a new character is introduced, his mother, the queen.
“The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid” has the mother and son argue with vocals singing back and forth. They each have their own sound backing them up too. The son’s being the beautiful acoustic guitar and the mother the intimidating White Stripes sound. In the end, the son convinces her to let him have this one night with Margaret and he will return to his mom the next day.
“The Abduction of Margaret” brings a twist to the story. Margaret is captured by a man working for the queen. The rest of the album goes through how Margaret’s lover goes to save her and “with this long last rush of air we speak our vows and sorry whispers, when the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes and softly kissed her” they die, escaping the hazards of love.
There is a whole second story about the narrator that is shown in “The Rake” and “The Hazards of Love Three (Revenge!)” about his own marriage. His wife his four children and dies in childbirth. He comes to resent his children and kills them. It adds a whole new depth to the story.
This CD amazed me. I definitely recommend it, if you’re looking for an impressive mixture of lyrical work and musicianship.
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