The Decemberists HMV Forum, London 18/11/09
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
First – a confession. The Hazards of Love, The Decemberists’ latest full-length album that the Portland ensemble performs in it's entirety at the Forum tonight, is my least favourite Decemberists’ record. The chamber-pop superfluities and Anglophile Colin Meloy playful deployment of archaic vernacular that has been the band’s charming calling-card since the turn of the century is sunk beneath the weight of the ponderous, proggy excess on Hazards.
Still, the record does have its moments -‘The Rake’s Song’ is great live, boosted by multiple percussionists and an eye-popping line in exaggerated Nick Cave-style pseudo-misogyny from the perspective of a murderous husband ("Until her womb start spilling out babies/Only then did I reckon my curse…”).
When he’s not in singing in character as a homicidal lunatic, Meloy’s an endearingly good-natured ringmaster, throwing in lines of The Smiths’ lyrics, discussing the great English sport of ‘sawwwker’ and wryly contemplating what exactly constitutes a “rough British neighbourhood” (they’re playing South London's Coronet tomorrow night.)
The second half of the show is given over to older favourites such as the Britpop-indebted The Legionnaire’s Lament, The Engine Driver and celebratory denouement Sons & Daughters – classics one and all.
Artists in this article: The Decemberists
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment