ALBUM: I'll burn this whole city down

I just love this whole album and I find myself loving people who love this album.
The Decemberists have crafted one of the finest with The Crane Wife. Musical styling that vary from chilling folk to pounding rock to a synthesizer driven beat and to top it off, a sea chanty.
And that's only one song.

Much of the album is made up of short vignettes like the Romeo-and-Juliet-esque O Valencia or the frightening Shankill Butchers. (Which I only found out who they were while writing this post. Why do people hate each other so much?)

But where the Decemberists really shine is their ballads.
The title track is an old Japanese folk tale and a whopping 15:38 (a gorgeous 15:38.) which is complimented by The Island, an amazing and unsettling retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest (clocking in at 12:26.)

The Crane Wife is really one of those albums you need to fully experience. A casual listen in a buddy's car will never do this work justice.

The Decemberists - O Valencia
from the album The Crane Wife (Amazon/iTunes)