The Decemberists – We All Raise Our Voices to the Air: Album Reviews
June 3, 2012 by Cameron Macintosh Jr
Filed under Album Reviews, Cam's Review Corner, Music
Hot on the hind of their 2011 studio album The King Is Dead, Portland’s finest indi-folk folks The Decemberists deliver their first live album – two discs of highly literate down-home goodness. It’s slightly surprising that they’ve taken so long to release a live album, given their formidable reputation as a live act.
The album’s 20 tracks span live shows in mid-2011 through the US leg of their Popes of Pendarvia World Tour, including gigs in Nashville, Atlanta, Jacksonville and Iowa City.
Drawing heavily on The King Is Dead, the album still manages to span the band’s career, veering back as far as their first album, 2002’s Castaways and Cutouts.
They begin with a declaration that ‘This is not a Keith Urban concert – if you mean to be at a Keith Urban concert you will be sorely disappointed’. A Keith concert it certainly isn’t – The Decemberists aren’t nearly as slick – but their ragged, jagged story songs are a treat to the ear and the intellect.
This is definitely one for the fans, but also a more than adequate introduction for newcomers.