De eerste single van het op 18 januari te verschijnen nieuwe album van The Decemberists is gratis te downloaden hier bij FunkiMag. Verder wat details over die nieuwe plaat - The King is Dead - en wat woorden van zanger Colin Meloy.
Het album is de opvolger van Hazards of Love en is opgenomen in een boerderij. Meloy zegt dat het album vooral door R.E.M. is beïnvloed, en dat dit te horen is op de eerste single. "Down By The Water" wordt live al vaak gespeeld, maar een studio-opname is toch altijd wat anders.
Meloy: “For all my talk about how complex those records were, this one may have been harder to do. IIt’s a real challenge to make simple music, and lot of times we had to deliberately hold off and keep more space. This record is an exercise in restraint. Over the last eleven years or so, since I moved to Portland, I feel like I’ve been mining mostly English traditions for influence. I guess I’ve kind of come back to a lot of the more American music that got me going in the first place – R.E.M. and Camper Van Beethoven and all these bands that borrowed from more American traditions like Neil Young and the Byrds. Sometimes I kind of miss the epic-ness of the other albums, but it’s nice to get all of the information across in three minutes. It’s like going from reading a novel to reading a bunch of short stories.”
The King Is Dead komt uit op 18 januari.
Tracklist: 01 “Don’t Carry It All” 02 “Calamity Song” 03 “Rise To Me” 04 “Rox In The Box” 05 “January Hymn” 06 “Down By The Water” 07 “All Arise!” 08 “June Hymn” 09 “This Is Why We Fight” 10 “Dear Avery”
