The Decemberists, The Hazards of Love

Even if concept albums are not your cup of tea, you should respect this about the Decemberists' new opus: they did not do it halfway. Ever since the great heyday of the narrative concept album in the '70s and early '80s, the overwhelming tendency among those more modern bands willing to appear unhip enough to attempt one has been to compromise, creating more of a string of linked short stories than a coherent musical novel. The idea, I guess, is to go for the best of both worlds--a puzzle of a story to rope in dedicated fans, and some potential singles for the radio. Maybe it was Trent Reznor who popularized the hybrid form with Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral; who knows? Anyway, since then everyone from the Smashing Pumpkins to Tori Amos to Prince has taken their crack at that prog-rock staple, with varying degrees of success.

The Decemberists, on the other hand, go full-on rock opera with The Hazards of Love, presenting a continuous tale on the classic tension graph, with leading and supporting characters, a couple villains, and multiple plot threads. Almost none of the album's seventeen songs is likely to stand well on its own as a radio single (head-scratching props to WXRT for putting the infanticide-themed "The Rake's Song" in heavy rotation). Most of them bleed seamlessly into one another, with clearly defined themes and reprises. It works primarily as a single, elaborate, hour-long composition. Maybe it's because I've been listening to a lot of Genesis lately, but I dig it.

The story, put simply, is a fable set in a dark and ominous fairy-tale land (think Neil Gaiman, not Mother Goose), about the perilous lengths to which young, shape-shifting hero William will go to be with his true love, Margaret--in the process angering his adoptive mother, the forest Queen, who concocts a plot to have the girl abducted by a murderous Rake. Because it's the Decemberists, love and tragedy are irrevocably intertwined, and after a daring rescue, William and Margaret end up drowning at sea, determined to make a marriage of their last moments.

On the rock opera story coherence scale, Hazards rates with highly filmable tales like The Wall and Tommy. It's very deliberately and coherently told--it wouldn't be hard at all to put this on stage with actors. They even go so far as to bring in guest vocalists to play some of the assorted character roles. The best is Shara Worden, who channels PJ Harvey, delivering a bruising performance as the jealous, malevolent Queen. Front man Colin Meloy does impressive double duty as both starry-eyed William and the devilish Rake.

The sound is sweeping and stunningly dynamic. There are some lovely acoustic pieces of the sort we'd expect from this band; abundant harpsichord; the requisite prog-rock keyboards and organ. And at times it rocks really, really hard--quite a surprise from this twee band of literary-minded Oregonians. I think their guitar showdown with Stephen Colbert might have had a profound effect on them. One of many high points is the chilling "The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)," in which the the Rake's murdered children--voiced by actual schoolkids--claim their ghastly justice, with warped strings screeching off of broken rails behind them.

The pleasures in listening to The Hazards of Love come in picking up on the little threads of musical continuity from one part to the next, taking in the epic sweep of the composition, and, much of the time, just grooving hard on the sound. It's best heard all at once, straight through, but you can also jump back in after pausing for a while and immediately be drawn into the musical drama. It's an impressive accomplishment--a big risk that could have gone badly awry. Instead, it's paid huge dividends.