I think it's very telling that I'd much rather be updating this silly little blog of mine during the day instead of actually working. Furthermore, even more telling are the lengths I've gone to to actually be able to get to this page.

Man, there is so much I just haven't had time to post here!!! I'm sorry!

But I had to make special considerations because today has special considerations to take into account. You see today was the first time I listened to "the hazards of love" from beginning to end. For the most part I've kept my expectations low. The few songs I heard prior to the release helped to damper those as well. The first time I heard "the rake's song" i near poo'd.

So first impressions. I don't like it nearly as much as I hoped. I had really hoped for the sound to return to the brilliant simplistic beauty that some of their older endeavors had mastered so eloquently. However to paraphrase pfork this is more like "the crane wife 2: even craneier". The one thing I find a little easier to swallow this time around though is the commitment to the concept. Where in the Crane wife I felt like I was intermittently having a great decemberists album interrupted by the Crane Wife concept debacle. Not that the related songs were all that bad. I just felt like the "typical" decemberists tracks were more interesting. Well, except Valencia which I found endearing the first time I heard it, but a little too sickenly sappy every time after that.

But shifting focus to the work at hand. Like I said, I've only been through it once so far. I thought it is probably like a 6 / 10. I immediately was taken to "the wanting comes in waves/repaid" which features My brightest diamond (can't recall her real name at the moment). Also there are a few other tracks that get down with a tight rock-esque guitar riffs. In particular I loved the church organ led, electric guitar fed close on (i believe) HOL3.

So all in all I think the album deserves some further consideration. I'm intrigued to read more about how the SXSW show went (they played the album in its entirety). But I love the decemberists for reasons other than their creative explorations.

Which leads me to my next post...