The Decemberists

are one of those bands that I like but don’t really keep up with. The last time I heard anything of them, they were having their asses handed to them by Stephen Colbert as part of Guitarmageddon. It is perhaps fitting then they will apparently be on the show once again in a couple of weeks. Maybe if they had a song like this the first time around, they may have won.

The Rake’s Song is thoroughly unpleasant. It’s not like the Decemberists haven’t put together twisted tales in the past, but this one took me by surprise. It all starts routinely enough with a guy marrying a girl. He’s not entirely happy but it seems to meet his needs. It falls apart when “her womb started spilling out babies”. The wording of that line alone gives a hint of the dark nature of what is to come, but it still manages to take one aback with just how graphic it gets on it’s spiral downward.

If this song was by any other band, I’d probably be somewhat disturbed by it all. Somehow it manages to suit the Decemberists though. Colin Meloy’s voice is perfectly pitched for the “dark fairytale” kind of sound, and now it would appear for even more grim material. It all jumps along jauntily enough, which should be even more disconcerting. Somehow it all works though, perhaps because of it’s very sound. If the music was as dark as the words, this would probably almost be unlistenable.

The Hazards of Love is out now on Rough Trade.