The Decemberists
As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
Y.A.B.B.
For over a decade now, The Decemberists have been less concerned with stunning wordplay and intricate concept records with multi-part song suites than they have been with acoustic (and sometimes electric) songs of ghostly matrimony, period frights, and lantern-light singalongs. Yet their latest, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, is a wild and fun combination of the country-folk heard on 2011’s The King Is Dead and gigantic metallic epics in the tradition of 2004’s The Tain EP. Their ninth full-length is a Decemberists-style sideways jig, both loose-knit in overall structure like their mid-2000s albums, but powerful with its guitar-led melodies and ranging genre dalliances.
In retrospect, 2018’s I’ll Be Your Girl and 2015’s What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World were comparative disappointments after The King Is Dead and the pre–Hazards of Love days. But there’s real clarity to songwriter Colin Meloy’s vocal diction and Tucker Martine’s production across the 13 tracks and four thematic sides of their latest release. Even though As It Ever Was is the longest Decemberists album to date and their first proper double album, enthusiasm for this record will come easy for longtime fans, no matter when they first entered the Portland group’s bookish world. Martine has produced every Decemberists album since 2006’s The Crane Wife except I’ll Be Your Girl, and he returns as a key sounding board for Meloy and his team.
Several of these songs feel like abandoned material that got a fresh coat of genre paint, such as the Tejano-tinged “Oh No!,” the Fairport Convention–esque track “The Reapers,” or the jangly opener “Burial Ground.” All three are about the band’s favorite topic: the inevitability of death and depravity in our society as viewed through an episodic hero. Elsewhere, “Born to the Morning” sounds like a lost Elephant 6 track, and cuts such as “Long White Veil,” “William Fitzwilliam,” and “All I Want Is You” come off as haunting Prine-esque country laments. The rollicking and vaudevillian piano lark “America Made Me” feels ripped out of 2003’s Her Majesty or 2005’s Picaresque as the electric guitar goes on a bender and the horns strut across the mix. Jenny Conlee’s organ, piano, and accordion work keep the emotions high on several tracks, with twilight keys embellishing the fuzzy surf-rocker “Tell Me What’s on Your Mind” as Meloy pleads to a lover struggling under the clouds as he tries to avoid saying the wrong thing.
We finally land on the big one: “Joan in the Garden.” After the record’s mid-section loses focus a bit, the swirl of choir, metal guitar screeds, electronic-ambient noise, chiming church bells, and organs jolt the listener back to life as they culminate in a massive runtime of 19 minutes. This track is as oversized and overstuffed with symbolism as its inspiration: Jules Bastien-Lepage’s painting of Joan of Arc’s hallucinatory visit by angels. Meloy’s delivery sells the drama, though, while Nate Query’s bass and Chris Funk’s electric guitar theatrics pull you along in the final section of a prog-rock track that’s creaky at times, but is clearly meant for a live atmosphere like some of the best epics on The Crane Wife or Hazards of Love.
As the title suggests, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again feels like a fresh start by returning to familiar forms, but taking new paths to get to the same place in the studio. It’s The Decemberists’ first full-length release on their new label, Y.A.B.B. Records after nearly two decades with Capitol. The Decemberists make a triumphant return like they never left, and you love to hear this kind of homecoming.
