Review: The Hazards of Love

This release has sort of slid beneath my radar the past couple of weeks. I can remember looking forward to it for quite some time and enjoying it when the first track was released on NPR a while back (“The Rake’s Song”), and yet it’s only been in the past couple of days that I’ve finally realized the album’s been out since March 17. Oh me… Didn’t take long for it to make an impression though. Pushing their reputation as “literary” musicians yet another step further, The Decembrists’ new release The Hazards of Love boasts an album-length narrative about a young changeling named William and his soul mate, Margaret; the love of whom helps to transform him in the album’s inaugural songs from fawn to man. As their story progresses, it is accompanied by a variety of different voices and perspectives, including William’s mother, a jealous and evil queen (who is sung by My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden), and her dark and deeply demented henchman, the Rake.

It is true that storytelling is nothing new for songwriting, and that is why past references to The Decembrists as a ‘literary’ band, I feel, have been a bit misguided, and at the very best unhelpful, but the way the band has structured their newest release around a single narrative has given me cause to reconsider. It’s not so much that there’s anything original about the story itself- in fact, the plot progresses much like your typical generic fairytale- but the way it is structured is of particular interest to those who, like me, listen to most of their music between trips to the library. As the story unfolds, the album is scattered with shifts in voice and perspective, with recurring bits of dialogue and melodies that, in their refrain, give the impression of one character calling to another across the album. And then there are the multiple reprisals of the album’s title track, “The Hazards of Love”, which each attend to a different character’s unique difficulties in Love. Even from an exclusively literary standpoint, I feel there something deeply gratifying about this album, and that’s not even to mention the music, which entails some of the band’s crunchiest riffs and darkest melodies- effects that are considerably augmented by Shara Worden’s menacing yet beautiful vocals.

Though the storyline is nothing new, the songs’ composition and orchestration often invest it with a nearly forgotten pathos, and create for the listener startling moments of amorous, I-don’t-care-if-it’s-cliché-style beauty. If you’re like me and have neglected to pick up the album until now, I suggest that you wait no longer, and when you do, be sure to have a printed copy of the lyrics nearby.

Here’s the first site I found to have the entire album’s lyrics posted.


Enjoy!