Folk The World

Here are two albums, seeped in the folk tradition, that have started 2011 off with a big, giant, musical bang.

The Decemberists- The King Is Dead (****½)
No one would have thought that The Decemberists had it in them to exercise artistic restraint. Their back catalog simply doesn’t set a precedent for it, from the ornate 8 plus minute “The Mariner’s Revenge Song” to 2009’s over-worked/cluttered concept album, The Hazards Of Love. Refreshingly, The King Is Dead strips away the group’s penchant for sonic verbosity and leaves behind warm, rootsy Americana influences in its wake. Gone are the repeated musical motifs and the complicated character studies, replaced with thistle-blown melodies, tumbling bass work, and rich acoustic guitar. Whether it’s the rolling one-two punch of “Don’t Carry It All” or the impending, accordion laced theatrics of “Rox In The Box,” the group’s newfound appreciation for immediacy serves these songs well. Unlike like The Decemberists' pervious effort, The King Is Dead grabs listeners on first spin as opposed operating like a dense, musical puzzle box. This is largely due to Colin Meloy’s richly detailed songwriting, which seems to be concerned with the passage of time. The people that embody his prose fight change (or for change), heartache, and the seasons themselves, belonging to a kind of rustic world that has all but vanished in the advent of modernity. Still, it’s the connections to those feelings and struggles that continue to live on, and Meloy is a master of drawing up the parallels. Whether that’s singing about fading love over the mournful harmonica of “June Hymn,” or his bid for forgiveness on the tenderly strummed closer “Dear Avery,” Meloy is able to wrap his concise parables with a decorative vocabulary and a real sense of humanity. In the end, The King Is Dead succeeds because Meloy decided to craft songs, rather than craft music around ideological abstractions. This results in the album being one of the brightest spots in The Decemberists’ storied discography, one that holds the old and new worlds in balance by keeping lofty ambitions in check.

Key Cuts: Don’t Carry It All, June Hymn, Dear Avery

Iron & Wine- Kiss Each Other Clean (****)
Guitarist/wordsmith Sam Beam paid his dues by daring to unplug his six string in the 2000s while everyone else around him was busy rediscovering the 80s. As his output has grown, however, Beam’s begun to add to his sound with deeper atmospheres and slicker studio embellishments. In that sense, it’s reasonable to be hesitant, mostly because Kiss Each Other Clean sounds like a sonic train wreck on paper. Combining folk, gospel, and sometimes country sensibilities with spacious, electronic flavored textures seems about as natural as a KISS disco record. Yet Beam pulls it off, mostly because his songs come across as soulful rather than sterile. From the glacial electronics and twinkling keyboards of “Walking Far From Home” to the swirling acid-gaze psychedelics of “Run Rabbit Run,” Kiss Each Other Clean revels in a fascinating sonic tug of war. It’s earthy but pristine, organic yet synthesized. At its heart though, the record is a vehicle for Beam to ponder weighty themes such as salvation, love, spirituality and death. On the bare piano pull of “Godless Brother In Love,” Beam goes so far as to caution his own country with the concerned croon of “She is money and tabs/That broken freedom in/See her big children burning rags/By the riverside…” While Kiss Each Other Clean isn’t short on ambition, its main flaw is it fails to come across as intimately as past Iron & Wine albums have. Beam’s older material hung its frailty and vulnerability on his naked guitar, and it’s difficult to find that same sense of closeness in songs like the 7 minute, sax swathed groove of “Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me.” Though the hooks are front and center, and Beam avoids coming across like a robotic pastor, Kiss Each Other Clean is the sound of Iron & Wine attempting to find its footing in a fluid, keyboard-driven twilight. Often stunning, though sometimes clunky, it’s a real treat from one of music’s most brazen songwriters.

Key Cuts: Walking Far From Home, Run Rabbit Run, Godless Brother In Love