Left to right: Nate, John, Colin, Jenny, and Chris.
We are two mariners,
Our ships' sole survivors,
In this belly of a whale.
Its ribs our ceiling beams,
Its guts our carpeting,
I guess we have some time to kill.
—The Decemberists, "The Mariner's Revevenge Song"
Most bands write songs about How Much I Love You Babe, songs that go verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus with nice regular chord structures, maybe throw in a neat guitar solo in the middle and a fade-out ending, you know, something like that.Most bands are not the Decemberists.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 disproportionate amount of drowning.) Meloy often employs the narrative form, creating baroque tales from the perspective of lovers, soldiers and sailors.Discography:
2001 - 5 Songs EP
2002 - Castaways and Cutouts
2003 - Her Majesty
2004 - The Tain EP (based on the Irish story Táin Bó Cúailnge or Cattle Raid of Cooley)
2005 - Picaresque
2005 - Picaresqueties EP
2006 - The Crane Wife: Humorously called "The best Jethro Tull album since Heavy Horses".
2008 - Always The Bridesmaid singles series
2009 - The Hazards of Love
2011 - The King Is Dead
As of 2011, Colin Meloy has added novel writer to his list of accomplishments, having written the young adult novel WILDWOOD and its sequel, Under WILDWOOD.
They provide examples of:
A Date with Rosie Palms: "Billy Liar." "Decked by a Japanese geisha with a garland of pearls," indeed...
Anthropomorphic Personification: The Queen in The Hazards of Love: "My feet are the trunks... My head is the canopy high... My fingers extend to the leaves."
Attempted Rape: "Margaret in Captivity" and "The Island".
Audience Participation Song: "16 Military Wives," primarily during the "la-di-da"s, and "The Mariner's Revenge Song."
"Billy Liar" is turned into one live.
"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.
Based on a True Story: The Shankill Butchers were chillingly, chillingly real. The song does exaggerate a bit, but then, it was reflecting the fact that Northern Irish mothers came to use the Butchers as boogeymen.
Bawdy Song: The punchline of "The Chimbley Sweep". Also, "Billy Liar", "A Cautionary Song", and possibly "The Landlord's Daughter."
Bittersweet Ending - The Hazards of Love: "And as the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes and softly kissed her."
"Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect" may also qualify, as its lyrics seem to speak of a man who, after continually trying and failing to be a good person in prior relationships, has only found satisfaction in seducing married women and teenage girls.
Epic Rocking: The Tain, "The Island: Come & See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel The Drowning", "The Mariner's Revenge Song", "The Crane Wife, Parts Two & Three", and "The Perfect Crime #1 / The Day I Knew You'd Not Come Back".
Notably, The Hazards of Love is performed live as one 50-minute song.
Live performances of "When the War Came" and "The Chimbley Sweep".
Everyone Has Standards: Jenny Conlee could play songs about homicide, suicide, and infanticide, but "Culling of the Fold" was too violent for her. At her insistence, the song was only available by redeeming a code on The Crane's Wife interior on their website or downloading it from iTunes.
Genius Loci: The Annan Water in The Hazards of Love.
Inter-Class Romance: "We Both Go Down Together" is about a wealthy young man who falls in love with a poor girl. It doesn't end well for either of them.
In The Style Of: You might make a case for a song here or there, but the only song where they've explicitly copped to this is "Down By The Water," which is their tribute to R.E.M..
The Lost Woods: The Hazards of Love is set in one of these, ruled by the dread Forest Queen.
Loudness War: While definitely not the worst offenders, their songs can delve into this at◊ times◊.
Lyric Swap: in "July, July!", the line "the water rolls down the drain" changes to "the blood rolls down the drain" for one refrain.
Lyrical Dissonance: 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"...
New Sound Album: The King Is Dead brings with it a sound best described as Bruce Springsteen gone Country (that steel guitar!). Seriously. Other albums do exhibit subtle changes, but none presented as big of a change as this one.
Not If They Enjoyed It Rationalization: "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."
Not-So-Safe Harbor: A few of their more maritimal shanties count: "The Mariner's Revenge Song", "Shanty for the Arethusa" (with ghosts!), and A Cautionary Song.
The Perfect Crime: Fittingly, "The Perfect Crime #1" and "The Perfect Crime #2".
Pirates: Also whalers, privateers, slavers, smugglers, and other miscellaneous mariners.
Precision F-Strike: "Clementine." "You slept in your overalls / after the wrecking ball / bereft you of house and of home / and left you with sweet fuck-all."
One of two in their entire discography (not counting live performances). The other, from The Perfect Crime #1: "So we ran around town with the cops stepping on our tails / Because we'd rather break depth than a fist-fuck in county jail / To pull the perfect crime, this is the perfect crime!"
The President's Daughter: Or rather, "the mogul's daughter in hog tie" (in "The Perfect Crime #2").
Queer Romance: "On The Bus Mall" is about two drug-addicted male prostitutes falling in love. Also confirmed in interviews to be the subject of "The Soldiering Life".
Rape as Drama: "The Landlord's Daughter", "The Abduction of Margaret", possibly "The Chimbley Sweep", "Odalisque", "The Bachelor and the Bride". They managed at least one per album until The King Is Dead.
Shotacon: Possibly "The Chimbley Sweep". It's not completely clear whether the Sweep is still young enough for it to be shota territory by the third verse. He probably is, though, going by the fact that he's still addressed as "urchin".
"They used to be just like me and you They used to be sweet little boys But something went horribly askew Now killing is their only source of joy"
Villain Song: "The Rake's Song". Depending on your interpretation, "The Culling of the Fold" could be this.
War Is Hell: The lyrics of "This Is Why We Fight".
Not to mention the harrowing and gruesome "When the War Came".
What Happened to the Mouse?: The heroine's pregnancy drives the action in "The Hazards of Love" — up until track seven. The baby's never mentioned after that, and it's presumably left orphaned and alone at the end.
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