History Music / TheDecemberists

* AfterTheEnd: "Calamity Song"

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: The Queen in The Hazards of Love "my feet are the trunks... my head is the canopy high... my fingers extend to the leaves".

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Chris Funk

* BittersweetEnding - The Hazards of Love [[spoiler:"And as the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes and softly kissed her."]]

* CuteGhostGirl: "Leslie Anne Levine" and the Rake's daughters, if you're into the creepy variety of cute.
** Somewhat mitigated by the fact that Leslie Anne Levine was prematurely born and died three hours later

* EpicRocking: ''The Tain''
** "The Island: Come & See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel The Drowning".
** ''The Hazards of Love'' is performed live as one 50-minute song.
** No mention of "The Mariner's Revenge Song?" Shame on you.
** "The Crane Wife, Parts Two & Three".
** "The Perfect Crime #1 / The Day I Knew You'd Not Come Back".

* EveryoneHasStandards: Jenny could play songs about homicide, suicide, and infanticide, but "Culling of the Fold" was too violent for her. At her insistence, "Culling of the Fold" was only available by redeeming a code on The Crane's Wife interior on their website or downloading it from iTunes.
* GeniusLoci: The Annan Water in the Hazards of Love
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: "The Hazards of Love".

* TheLostWoods: ''Hazards of Love'' is set in one of these, ruled by the dread Forest Queen.

* MyBelovedSmother: The Queen of the Forest on Hazards of Love.

* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: ''We Both Go Down Together'' may count, or it may be an inversion depending on how you interpret the line "You wept but your soul was willing."
* NotSoSafeHarbor: Their more maritimal shanties, "The Mariner's Revenge Song" is quite noteworthy.
** "Shanty for the Arethusa" is practically an ode to this trope. [[XMeetsY With ghosts]].
** ''A Cautionary Song'' could also apply.

As of 2011, Colin Meloy has added novel writer to his list of accomplishments, having written the young adult novel ''WILDWOOD''.

->--'''The Decemberists''', "The Mariner's Revenge Song"

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Jenny could play songs about homicide, suicide, and infanticide, but "Culling of the Fold" was too violent for her. At her insistence, "Culling of the Fold" was only available by redeeming a code on The Crane's Wife interior on their website or downloading it from iTunes.

* RapeIsLove: "We Both Go Down Together". Probable UnreliableNarrator.

Most bands are not the Decemberists.

** "Chimbley Sweep" as well. This troper witnessed Meloy encouraging audience members at a show to rip their bolted-together chairs apart and dance with them over their heads. This troper also succeeded in following instructions.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Jenny could play songs about homicide, suicide, and infanticide, but "Culling of the Fold" was too violent for her. At her insistence, "Culling of the Fold" was only available by redeeming a code on The Crane's Wife interior on their website or downloading it from iTunes.

* MurderBallad: "The Mariner's Revenge Song", "The Rake's Song", "The Culling of the Fold".

** ''A Cautionary Song'' could also apply.

* RapeIsLove: "We Both Go Down Together". Probable UnreliableNarrator.

* {{Sophisticated As Hell}}: "Los Angeles, I'm Yours"

* TakeThat[=/=]TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: "Los Angeles, I'm Yours" consists 4 minutes of Colin Meloy hating on LosAngeles in great detail.

[[ISeeLondon I can see your undies]]"

* ItsNotRapeIfYouEnjoyedIt: ''We Both Go Down Together'' may count, or it may be an inversion depending on how you interpret the line "You wept but your soul was willing."

Most bands write songs about [[SillyLoveSongs How Much I Love You Babe]], songs that go verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus with nice [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth regular chord structures]], maybe throw in a neat guitar solo in the middle and a fade-out ending, [[HomestarRunner you know, something like that]].

As of 2011, Colin Meloy has added novel writer to his list of accomplishments, having writen the young adult novol ''WILDWOOD''.

* MadnessMantra: "Mariner's Revenge": [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel "Fiiiind him, biiiiind him, tie him to a pole and break his fiiiiiingers to spliiiiinters ..."]]

** "The Island: Come & See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel The Drowning",

* HoYay: "The Soldiering Life". "On The Bus Mall" doesn't count because the characters are actually meant to be gay (Meloy described it as being about "two male junky prostitutes").

* RapeAsDrama: "The Landlord's Daughter", "The Abduction of Margaret", possibly "The Chimbley Sweep".
** Don't forget "Odalisque".
*** "The Bachelor and the Bride", to round out the list -- they managed at least one per album until [[LighterAndSofter The King Is Dead]].

* HoYay: "The Soldiering Life". "O Valencia!", if one interpretation of its lyrics is to be taken as fact. "On The Bus Mall" doesn't count because the characters are actually meant to be gay (Meloy described it as being about "two male junky prostitutes").
** While "The Bagman's Gambit" can be read as a hetero or homosexual couple, most read it as being about either {{Gayngster}}s or gay spies.

* ItsNotRapeIfYouEnjoyedIt: Margaret and William at the beginning of Hazards of Love.
** ''We Both Go Down Together'' may also count, or it may be an inversion depending on how you interpret the line "You wept but your soul was willing."

* LyricalDissonance: Why, yes, I'll have a big fat cauldronful: "The Legionnaire's Lament", the final verse of "Los Angeles, I'm Yours", "16 Military Wives", the end of "The Mariner's Revenge Song" in a rare instrumental example, "O Valencia!", "Culling of the Fold", "A Cautionary Song", "July, July!", "The Chimbley Sweep", "Calamity Song"...
* LyricSwap: in "July, July!", the line "the water rolls down the drain" changes to "the blood rolls down the drain" for one refrain.

* RecordOfLoudnessWar: While definitely not the worst offenders, their songs can delve into this [[http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7254/loud1.png at]] [[http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/9862/loud2.png times]].

* 2004 - ''The Tain'' EP (based on the Irish story TainBoCuailnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley)

* CelticMythology: ''[[TainBoCuailnge The Tain]]'', as well as the general "guitar and accordion rock" flavor of many of their songs.

* PrecisionFStrike: "Clementine." "You slept in your overalls after the wrecking ball bereft you of house and of home and left you with sweet fuck-all."

Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query, and John Moen form the band's current rotation, with Meloy, Funk and Conlee being the only original members remaining in the band (the band's best known former member is drummer/vocalist Rachel Blumberg who was a member of the band between ''Her Majesty'' and ''Picaresque''). The songs, penned and sung by Meloy, vary from quirky, introspective pop about filicide to rollicking ballads about pirates and gypsies. (There is a disproportionately large amount of drowning.) Meloy often employs the narrative form, creating baroque tales from the perspective of lovers, soldiers and sailors.