new decemberists album is a rock opera and blah blah blah go read a wikipedia entry if you're really not familiar with the story behind the album. what's important is that it's out and is objectively awesome.
to get an idea for the album's sound just imagine a full-length comprised of songs sharing the same theatrical progressive elements of the tain or the island off of the crane wife, except while not so grandiose individually, are absolutely epic as a whole. the thematic recapitulations of the album's main theme done to match the emotional tone of each song are brilliant and really help to make sense of what's going on in the narrative. i'm still working out the details of the story because it is colin meloy and he can't just say the thing he wants to say like people would normally say it, but pieces are falling into place. so far my favorite part is easily that of the rake; who murders his children only to have them come back from the dead for revenge.
let's talk about this.