The King Is Dead

AlbumJan 18 / 201110 songs, 40m 35s
Indie Folk Country Rock Americana
Popular

After a decade-long foray into British-inspired folk-rock, The Decemberists now proclaim *The King Is Dead*. The Portland-based group’s sixth studio album signals a sea change and offers more of an Americana bent — with the mostly delicate, swaying, and passionate compositions adorned with themes of transition and rebirth. This can be immediately heard on the opening track, “Don’t Carry It All,” featuring harmonica, methodical rhythm guitar, and light strings. Things get a bit alt-country on the Peter Buck–assisted “Calamity Song” — in fact, the R.E.M. member appears on several songs, as does chanteuse Gillian Welch. That tune about returning home and falling into an angel\'s arms (“Calamity Song”) cohesively transitions into “Rise to Me,” an acoustic composition brushed with mixed-gender harmonies, harmonica, and pedal-steel guitar. There’s a markedly simple nature to *The King Is Dead*, a testament to The Decemberists\' way of making everything sound so pleasant and breezy.

7.2 / 10

Colin Meloy and co. follow their proggy rock opera The Hazards of Love with a breezy country-folk record. Peter Buck and Gillian Welch guest.

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After releasing The Hazards Of Love, the most complicated, ambitious, and polarizing album of the group’s career, The Decemberists return with The King Is Dead, a record that sounds like lost demos from their earliest days. (Or perhaps even earlier… at times, The King Is Dead sounds like it could’ve been recorded…

4 / 10

8.5 / 10

Framed by crisp layers of pedal steel, acoustic guitar and harmonica, the album's tracklist is an exercise in rustic restraint, with only one song topping the five-minute mark.

Check out our album review of Artist's The King Is Dead on Rolling Stone.com.

Sometimes, it seems, stripping back offers so much more.

The Decemberists' sixth, full-length studio outing finds the Portland, OR-based indie rock collective exploring a region that has thus far eluded them.

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7.0 / 10

The Decemberists have never been shy about their Anglophilia, their early releases often marked by dark, Victorian tales.

7 / 10

There are times during this record when it’s hard not to be reminded of R.E.M. in full jangle mode. Think somewhere between ‘Green’ and ‘Out Of Time’ and you’ll not be far wrong.

To the Decemberists’s credit, they’re committed to the idea of challenging themselves.

8 / 10

The Decemberists have forsaken rock operas for pop songs. <strong>Michael Hann</strong> is impressed

96 %

Album Reviews: The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

74 %

The Decemberists’ 2006 major-label debut, The Crane Wife, was notable for bringing to the fore the Portland outfit’s underlying ‘70s prog leanings, while sacrificing none of the hyperliterate pop sensibilities of their earlier work. Its 2009 follow-up, The Hazards of Love, took these influences even further—it was a nearly impenetrable concept album that two years

4.0 / 5

The Decemberists - The King Is Dead review: ...with our arms unbound.

Colin Meloy's band team up with Gillian Welch for a fine album of American folk.

8 / 10