The Decemberists: The Hazards Of Love

The real surprise of The Hazards Of Love is how well it works as a straight-up rock album. Aside from a half-silent “Prelude” and a couple of shrill stompers (“The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid” and “The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing”), these songs work fine out of context. Melodic themes repeat, and the appearance of guest vocalists Becky Stark and Shara Worden may momentarily confuse the diehards, but the individual pieces of Meloy’s story are fairly self-contained, such that nearly any random track on The Hazards Of Love conveys the overarching idea of a fallible heroine plagued by insatiable villains.

Meloy could stand to lighten up a little. Even though he’s built a career on songs about archaic child-murder and the like, The Decemberists’ earlier albums featured more moments of joy and humor. Or maybe Meloy’s wit is getting wryer. The “here’s how I offed my progeny” anthem “The Rake’s Song” is so specific in its grotesquery that it becomes as comic as it is frightening, while “The Hazards Of Love 4 (The Drowned)” is a closing elegy that’s simultaneously over the top and genuinely moving. It leaves listeners with the sense of weights lifting, spirits ascending, and rock bands doing what they were born to do.