The Decemberists Return to Prog?

[Soc Prof]

The Decemberists have a new album coming out on June 14. They described it on Facebook as "our first intentional double album." (Maybe the 10th anniversary edition of The Crane Wife with bonus tracks was an unintentional double album?)

They just released a second song from the album on YouTube. It is a 19:20 long track with some synth soloing in the final section. Is this a return to a proggier version of the band? Time will tell.

[Czyszy]

this song slaps

[Teddy Vengeance]

If it’s in the style of their longer Crane Wife tracks, it’s a must listen.

[Sunlight Caller]

Oh I’m looking forward to this. I haven’t played them in a long while, but was a firm fan around the time of Crane Wife and Hazards Of Love. I saw each of those tours, and they were superb experiences.

[Baribrotzer]

You could call it prog, I guess.

The first 8-to-9 minutes resemble a long folk ballad as played by DarkSide-era Pink Floyd, followed by a extended spacey section, followed by a brief, more rockin' conclusion. But it sounds to me like a 9-or-10-minute suite stretched out to double length. You'd think that their decade or so of making tight, punchy Americana in the model of The Band would have taught them when the music needs to change. Incidentally, both Chris Funk (lead guitar and other string instruments) and Jenny Conlee (keyboards) have something approaching prog backgrounds: Chris played avant-garde stuff in college before becoming a master of the appropriate and expected, while Jenny was a classical piano major and could also play jazz fairly well.

[Splicer]

It's more interesting than enjoyable. Honestly, I loved the previous single, "Burial Ground." That song was a return to form of Colin Meloy earworm songwriting reminiscent of Andy Partridge.

[Plasmatopia]

Never heard anything in their music I'd consider prog?

[pb2015]

Kind of a Tull thing in some tracks I've heard from their previous CDs. Scanning the new track I agree with the above post that it is more Floyd.

[Soc Prof]

You could call it prog, I guess.

The first 8-to-9 minutes resemble a long folk ballad as played by DarkSide-era Pink Floyd, followed by a extended spacey section, followed by a brief, more rockin' conclusion. But it sounds to me like a 9-or-10-minute suite stretched out to double length. You'd think that their decade or so of making tight, punchy Americana in the model of The Band would have taught them when the music needs to change. Incidentally, both Chris Funk (lead guitar and other string instruments) and Jenny Conlee (keyboards) have something approaching prog backgrounds: Chris played avant-garde stuff in college before becoming a master of the appropriate and expected, while Jenny was a classical piano major and could also play jazz fairly well.

I tend to agree that they made it long for the sake of making it long, rather than having 19 minutes of musical substance. Rick Wakeman would complain that the song has too much "bluff" in it. I like the final section, though.

[mnprogger2023]

yep, liking this quite a lot.

[SteveSly]

Really looking forward to this one. Their last few albums have been ok, but not nearly the level of their earlier stuff. This sounds really cool.

[taliesin]

Saw them last night in Toronto - a great show as usual from the band. They played four or five songs from the new album including the ones released so far and they all sound very good so looking forward to hearing the whole thing when it's out in June.