This Tuesday there are new CD’s out by Beck and The Decemberists -
Beck - The Information
This sounds like a return to the Odelay experimental music, and thats a good thing.
Decemberists The Crane Wife
The Decemberists have achieved enough success now that they’ve moved to a major label, so I’m guessing this album will be more ambitious, perhaps with a little more production behind it.
Just a heads-up for the fans.
I, for one, am glad to hear this. I am a big fan of both of them.
I’ve already heard “Yankee Bayonet” and “O’ Valencia” from The Crane Wife, and both are amazing. Can’t wait til I get out of work tomorrow.
I preordered the Decemberists CD from Amazon. I’m hoping it comes before I go home for fall break on Saturday. If I had a car or more than five minutes of free time tomorrow, I’d go buy it for real and save myself the wait. Alas.
Since production is Nigel Godrich of Mutations and Sea Change, you might expect more of that sort of thing. For a return to Odelay you might want the Dust Brothers.
I’ve been listening to both for a few weeks. The Information, unfortunately, just doesn’t move me, and it’s the first Beck album I’ve said that about.
The Crane Wife, on the other hand, is sublime, easily one of the best discs I’ve heard this year.
Also coming out 10/3 and recommended: the new Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America.
I definitely want the Decemberists and Hold Steady ones. Maybe I should head over and get them tomorrow. I hope they have a few acoustic songs; my favorite Hold Steady song that I’ve heard is an acoustic version of Modesto Is Not That Sweet for one of the radio stations around here and it was great. They kind of remind me of Husker Du, mostly because of the singing and lyrics.
Just to clarify, everything in my above post after the first two sentences is just about The Hold Steady. The Decemberists do not remind me of Husker Du.
I have to admit it: I’m not sure I’m blown away by the Crane Wife. There are some good musical ideas scattered all over the place, but if I had to tell a friend “here, check this song out, it really shows why these guys are so great” I’m not sure I could pick any one song off the album that would be very impressive as a whole. I’m not saying they need more marketable singles and less long songs or anything, but things just seem less combobulated on this one for me.
I’ve listened to both once through, and so far…
The Information is going to have to grow on me. But then, that’s true of a lot of Beck’s music. It’s hard to tell how much you like it unless you play it a few times and let it sink into your brain. I’ll have a more firm opinion of it in a couple of days.
On first listen, I liked The Crane Wife better. I’m not sure I’ll like it more than Picaresque or Castaways and Cutouts - those CD’s were full of songs that just grabbed you the first time you listened to them, and only got better with repeated plays. So far, this CD sounds more like The Tain, which isn’t my favorite Decemberists work. But I only got a chance to listen to it at work while I was busy with other stuff, so I’m going to put it on again now and see what I think.
Metacritic has it at a 92 rating, though, which puts it in the top 10 highest rated CDs of all time. I suspect this one will really grow on me.
The Tain is my favorite Decemberists work, or close to it, and I’m really enjoying The Crane Wife, although it’ll take a while before I can tell how much I like it compared to their other albums.
I picked up The Crane Wife yesterday on iTMS and I have to say that it is great. I would not put it above Picaresque(which is one of my favorite albums), but still good. What I found even more exciting was that I bought the album only two days after it was released, making this the first time in my life I have been this up to date with music. The closest I’d ever come before was when I bought The Eels’ Blinking Lights and Other Revelations a few months ago, a little over a year after its release.
I havn’t had a chance to get The Information yet, but while a change back to the sound of Odelay could be good I did love Sea Change.
I haven’t purchased the new Decemberists album yet, but I’ve heard some of it on KEXP. Am I alone in thinking that it sounds oddly reminiscent of Laura Veirs?
Well if the song you heard was Yankee Bayonet, then you DID hear Laura Veirs. She sings with Colin on that song.
Huh. I thought the female voice on that one song sounded familiar. (Still, the “reminiscent” bit was referrring to the general sound of the songs. Though it’s nice to see her getting some more exposure.)