The Decemberists

Decemberists main man Colin Meloy must have a dandy record
collection. The influences throughout the band’s latest opus, The
Hazards of Love, are enough to make older prog heads glow with
sweet nostalgia. Love is a suite, each track leading into the
next, its narrative told via an engaging mixture of old-school bombast
(think Rush, Jethro Tull and the bands Spinal Tap satirized) with
delicate, insinuating folk melodies. (Meloy gives solid props to Brit
trad performers Shirley Collins and Anne Briggs.) The Decemberists
could now successfully undertake a version of “Stonehenge” (the Tap’s
undoing), as they have both the talent and the self-aware wit to get it
right.