Two new albums came out on Tuesday from two of my most favorite bands, and both are fantastic and easily some of the best work each band has ever done.
The King is Dead by the Decemberists
This album sounds exactly like the cover looks like. Odd? Perhaps. But if the cover conjures up that warm feeling of a cozy late spring or summer evening spent outside camping, so does the music. The music also has the dual quality of both requiring a close listen and being able to just put it on repeat, turn it down a bit, and leave it playing in the background for as long as the mood lasts (a whole summer? Perhaps).
It's no secret that I love the Decemberists. They are a band that is capable of an extremely wide breadth of sound without turning droll, stale, or seeming out of their element. So if the harmonicas (I understand how you feel, that not everyone can pull it off like Bob Dylan) and slide guitars (I understand how you feel, that not everyone can pull it off like Steve Howe) throw you off a bit, stick it through at least the end of the opening track. I promise that you won't regret it.
Kiss Each Other Clean by Iron & Wine
Unfortunately, the music here does not match the psychadelicness of this color-scratch drawing, which is a shame, because I would love to see Sam Beam do a Yes- and Floyd-inspired prog rock album. Don't worry, though, these tracks can stand on their own. They follow in the path set out by The Shepherd's Dog, meaning there's a full band and electric guitars, but this one is so much better. Sure, there's a pretty big dud in Monkeys Uptown, which sounds a little to 80's soft rock for me, but that is redeemed by Rabbit Will Run, a song that features a frantic electric solo and more than a little bit of slow-mo Hendrix.
I, for one, enjoy this more fleshed-out Iron & Wine. While fantastic, his acoustic music is limited by his folk structure and admittedly all kind of sounds the same after a while. Therefore, I take this new turn, its kinks having been worked out last album, and run with it.
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