The Decemberists

/wiki/The Decemberistscreator

We are two mariners,
Our ships' sole survivors,
In this belly of a whale.
Its ribs our ceiling beams,
Its guts our carpeting,
I guess we have some time to kill.

—The Decemberists, "The Mariner's Revenge Song"

Most bands write songs about How Much I Love You Babe, songs that go verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus with nice regular chord structures, maybe throw in a neat guitar solo in the middle and a fade-out ending, you know, something like that.

Most bands are not The Decemberists.

Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query, and John Moen form the band's current rotation, with Meloy, Funk and Conlee being the only original members remaining in the band (the band's best known former member is drummer/vocalist Rachel Blumberg who was a member of the band between Her Majesty and Picaresque). The songs, penned and sung by Meloy, vary from quirky, introspective pop about filicide to rollicking ballads about pirates and gypsies. (There is a disproportionate amount of drowning.) Meloy often employs the narrative form, creating baroque tales from the perspective of lovers, soldiers and sailors.

As of 2011, Colin Meloy has added novel writer to his list of accomplishments, having written the young adult novel WILDWOOD.

Discography:
  • 5 Songs EP (2001)
  • Castaways and Cutouts (2002)
  • Her Majesty (2003 }
  • The Tain EP (2004; based on the Irish story Tain Bo Cuailnge or Cattle Raid of Cooley)
  • Picaresque (2005)
  • Picaresqueties EP (2005)
  • The Crane Wife (2006): Humorously called "The best Jethro Tull album since Heavy Horses".
  • Always The Bridesmaid singles series (2008)
  • The Hazards of Love (2009)
  • The King Is Dead (2011)
  • What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (2015)
  • I'll Be Your Girl (2018)
The Decemberists provides examples of the following tropes:
  • A Date with Rosie Palms: "Billy Liar." "Decked by a Japanese geisha with a garland of pearls," indeed...
  • After the End: "Calamity Song"
  • Angry Mob Song: "When the War Came" - the rare non-Crowd Song example.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: The Queen in The Hazards of Love "my feet are the trunks... my head is the canopy high... my fingers extend to the leaves".
  • Audience Participation Song: "16 Military Wives," primarily during the "la-di-da"s, and "The Mariner's Revenge Song."
    • "Billy Liar" is turned into one live.
    • "Chimbley Sweep" as well. This troper witnessed Meloy encouraging audience members at a show to rip their bolted-together chairs apart and dance with them over their heads. This troper also succeeded in following instructions.
  • Based on a True Story: The Shankill Butchers were chillingly, chillingly real. The song does exaggerate a bit, but then, it was reflecting the fact that Northern Irish mothers came to use the Butchers as boogeymen.
  • Bawdy Song: The punchline of "The Chimbley Sweep". Also, "Billy Liar", "A Cautionary Song", and possibly "The Landlord's Daughter."
  • Belly of the Whale: "The Mariner's Revenge Song".
  • Bittersweet Ending - The Hazards of Love "And as the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes and softly kissed her."
    • "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect" may also qualify, as its lyrics seem to speak of a man who, after continually trying and failing to be a good person in prior relationships, has only found satisfaction in seducing married women and teenage girls.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: The video for "This Is Why We Fight".
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Combines with Lyrical Dissonance sometimes - see "July, July!" and "The Chimbley Sweep".
  • Break Up Song: "Record Year For Rainfall".
  • California Collapse: Mentioned in "Calamity Song".
  • Celtic Mythology: The Tain, as well as the general "guitar and accordion rock" flavor of many of their songs.
  • Concept Album: The Hazards of Love. The Tain is also concept EP.
  • Continuity Nod: Possibly. The woman in "We Both Go Down Together" is considered by some to be the mother of Leslie Anne Levine.
    • "The Chimbley Sweep" may or may not be narrated by a minor character from (once more) "Leslie Anne Levine". But no one can say for sure...
  • Creepy Child: The ghosts of the Rake's children in "Revenge!" Though can you blame them?
    • Try listening to the "Yummy Yummy Yummy, I got love in my tummy" song after hearing this song. It's so creepy it makes other songs creepy.
  • Crowd Song: "Sons & Daughters".
  • Cute Ghost Girl: "Leslie Anne Levine" and the Rake's daughters, if you're into the creepy variety of cute.
    • Somewhat mitigated by the fact that Leslie Anne Levine was prematurely born and died three hours later
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: "The Tain": "I will bleed your heart through a samovar soon". Ow.
  • Darker and Edgier: "The Tain" is downright eerie.
  • Door Step Baby: "The Chimbley Sweep".
  • Epic Rocking: The Tain
    • "The Island: Come & See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel The Drowning".
    • The Hazards of Love is performed live as one 50-minute song.
    • No mention of "The Mariner's Revenge Song?" Shame on you.
    • "The Crane Wife, Parts Two & Three".
    • "The Perfect Crime #1 / The Day I Knew You'd Not Come Back".
    • Live performances of "When the War Came" and "The Chimbley Sweep".
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Jenny could play songs about homicide, suicide, and infanticide, but "Culling of the Fold" was too violent for her. At her insistence, "Culling of the Fold" was only available by redeeming a code on The Crane's Wife interior on their website or downloading it from iTunes.
  • Genius Loci: The Annan Water in the Hazards of Love
  • God Save Us From the Queen: "The Hazards of Love".
  • Gorn: "Culling of the Fold".
  • I Call It Vera: Stephen's bicycle Madeline in "The Apology Song".
  • I Will Wait for You: "Yankee Bayonet", "From My Own True Love Lost At Sea".
  • Inter Class Romance: "We Both Go Down Together" is about a wealthy young man who falls in love with a poor girl. It doesn't end well for either of them.
  • Intercourse with You: "Oceanside," and possibly "Of Angels and Angles."
  • "It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It": We Both Go Down Together may count, or it may be an inversion depending on how you interpret the line "You wept but your soul was willing."
  • Legion of Lost Souls: "The Legionnaire's Lament."
  • The Lost Woods: Hazards of Love is set in one of these, ruled by the dread Forest Queen.
  • Loudness War: While definitely not the worst offenders, their songs can delve into this at times.
  • Lyric Swap: in "July, July!", the line "the water rolls down the drain" changes to "the blood rolls down the drain" for one refrain.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: Why, yes, I'll have a big fat cauldronful: "The Legionnaire's Lament", the final verse of "Los Angeles, I'm Yours", "16 Military Wives", the end of "The Mariner's Revenge Song" in a rare instrumental example, "O Valencia!", "Culling of the Fold", "A Cautionary Song", "July, July!", "The Chimbley Sweep", "Calamity Song"...
  • Madness Mantra: "Mariner's Revenge": "Fiiiind him, biiiiind him, tie him to a pole and break his fiiiiiingers to spliiiiinters ..."
    • Also "Someone's got to do / the culling of the fold..."
  • Murder Ballad: "The Mariner's Revenge Song", "The Rake's Song", "The Culling of the Fold".
  • Mrs. Robinson: The widow in "The Chimbley Sweep".
  • My Beloved Smother: The Queen of the Forest on Hazards of Love.
  • New Sound Album: The King Is Dead brings with it a sound best described as Bruce Springsteen gone Country (that steel guitar!). Seriously. Other albums do exhibit subtle changes, but none presented as big of a change as this one.
  • Not-So-Safe Harbor: Their more maritimal shanties, "The Mariner's Revenge Song" is quite noteworthy.
    • "Shanty for the Arethusa" is practically an ode to this trope. With ghosts.
    • A Cautionary Song could also apply.
  • Offing the Offspring: "The Rake's Song".
  • The Other Rainforest: The band is from Portland, Oregon.
  • The Perfect Crime: Fittingly, "The Perfect Crime #1" and "The Perfect Crime #2".
  • Pirates: Also whalers, privateers, slavers, smugglers, and other miscellaneous mariners.
  • Precision F-Strike: "Clementine." "You slept in your overalls / after the wrecking ball / bereft you of house and of home / and left you with sweet fuck-all."
    • One of two in their entire discography (not counting live performances). The other, from The Perfect Crime #1: "So we ran around town with the cops stepping on our tails / Because we'd rather break depth than a fist-fuck in county jail / To pull the perfect crime, this is the perfect crime!"
  • The President's Daughter: Or rather, "the mogul's daughter in hog tie" (in "The Perfect Crime #2").
  • Privateer: See above.
  • Queer Romance: "On The Bus Mall" is about two drug-addicted male prostitutes falling in love. Also confirmed in interviews to be the subject of "The Soldiering Life".
  • Protest Song: "16 Military Wives," complete with a video that skewers George W. Bush and features a Model United Nations conference gone whack.
  • Rape as Drama: "The Landlord's Daughter", "The Abduction of Margaret", possibly "The Chimbley Sweep", "Odalisque", "The Bachelor and the Bride". They managed at least one per album until The King Is Dead.
  • Rape Is Love: "We Both Go Down Together". Probable Unreliable Narrator.
  • Rock Opera: The Hazards of Love.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: And how.
  • Shotacon: Possibly "The Chimbley Sweep". It's not completely clear whether the Sweep is still young enough for it to be shota territory by the third verse. He probably is, though, going by the fact that he's still addressed as "urchin".
  • Shout-Out: The mention of "The Year of the Chewable Ambien Tab" and the video for "Calamity Song" are Shout Outs to the late David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
  • Shout-Out/To Shakespeare: Constantly.
  • Silly Love Songs: Subverted in "Yankee Bayonet". Played straight in "Oceanside". Played straight, if rather unconventionally in "The Bandit Queen."
  • Sophisticated As Hell: "Los Angeles, I'm Yours"

"Old ladies, pleasant and demure
Sallow-cheeked and sure
I can see your undies"

"They used to be just like me and you
They used to be sweet little boys
But something went horribly askew
Now killing is their only source of joy"

"Darling dear, what have you done?

Your clothes are torn, your makeup runs."

"[[Blatant Lies I ran through brambles, blooming thistle,

I washed my face in the river when you whistled me on]]."

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