The Decemberists – What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
Rating: 
The Decemberists have long been a staple band in the indie rock world, coming together at the beginning of the new millennium and being fairly prolific ever since. While they’ve gone slightly different directions over the years, the raw distinctive vocals of Colin Meloy and folk influenced base have always been the center of their albums: What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World is no exception to this.
The strongest part of this album is the beginning, particularly the first few tracks, which lead you to believe these folks have a little something different for you this time around. Opener, “The Singer Addresses His Audience” sees the band breaking the barrier between audience and artist, as Meloy acknowledges his supposed influence on his listeners. He talks a lot about how the band has had to change over the years “to belong” to us, but what is great about this song is the way it really explodes at the end. What starts as simple acoustic guitar and vocals builds into this whole band effort of huge sound: strings, group vocals, piano, building drums and guitars all come together in one orchestration of the control of nuance, which this band does quite well. They chant “To belong” over and over, making you feel welcome to the album and happy that something so warm belongs to you.
They continue this bombastic sound on to the next track “Cavalry Captain,” that comes in hot with jangly percussion and horns. This song feeds off the energy and excitement that the first track ended on, and the dramatic and formal lyrics start to make you feel right at home with The Decemberists. “Philomena” continues the streak, but feels a little more old timey—the female “ooh-ahhs” and overall strong presence in this song makes it interesting the whole way through. The melody meanders and frolics, feeling whimsical and light.
But around the middle of the record, the songs start to fall flat, reminiscent of what they’ve already done before, or just not pushing past plain indie folk rock. “Anti-Summersong” sounds almost like a parody of their own sound; the cartoon-esque backup vocals and harmonica making the band sound silly. There’s not a whole lot of new territory here, and their sound feels really pared down to a stale formula: the freshness from the first tracks has been lost.
At the end of the album, it’s hard to figure out where I stand. There are some good tracks on this album that will probably make my listening catalogue, but on the whole, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World lacks that knock-you-off-your-feet factor to make it more than just tolerable songs. Perhaps fans of The Decemberists will argue otherwise.