Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 2 / 5 Reviewer: Garth Paulson |
Who wanted this? Seriously? After cementing themselves as a great folk-pop band with a penchant for smart, dorky lyrics about the esoteric lives of Victorian chimney sweeps, homoerotic soldiers and puckish rascals, no could blame The Decemberists for wanting to branch out musically, but who thought a bloated, ’70s-style rock opera was the way to go? Back in 2004 when the band started toying with their inner prog-leanings and Iron Butterfly-worship on The Tain, it was seen as a lark, a one-off slab of dumb, beefy whimsy from a particularly whimsical group. It was fun, but didn’t suggest a new career trajectory.
Unfortunately, The Decemberists chose to follow that very trajectory, merit be damned, and so The Hazards of Love- an hour long folk-prog rock opera about two young lovers a scorned queen and a villainous rake – has been born onto the world regardless of whether anyone outside of Decemberists’ frontman Colin Meloy and company thought it was a good idea. And, well, turns out it wasn’t a good idea as the band just isn’t as convincing pumping out the bombast and riffage as they are with gently strummed acoustic guitar and sly humour.
Still, The Hazards of Love isn’t a complete failure. The appearances My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden makes as the queen stand as the album’s highpoints. Unlike Meloy – who plays several characters in his signature nasally overly enunciated intonation – Worden possesses a siren of a voice that works with the thick, booming classic rock that is the album’s bread and butter. When she takes the mic, the album doesn’t seem quite so ridiculous; when Meloy provides the vocals, the disconnect between his delivery and the backing sludge proves comical.
When a children’s choir pops up on the third of four iterations of the title track to haunt the rake, The Hazards of Love firmly moves from silly to absurd and the Decemberists further, and perhaps fully, distance themselves from their strong points. The band can’t be blamed for wanting to push their sounds to new heights, but here, with the exception of Worden’s guest performances, they only achieve new lows.
