The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

In recent years, The Decemberists have become darlings of the indie rock scene, with both critics and fans, a feat that is all the more noteworthy when you realize that much of their catalog consists of sea chanteys, murder ballads, Japanese folk tales, stories of civil war soldiers and other fare that isn't exactly what you'd expect the hip kids to be into. Much of the credit goes to singer/songwriter Colin Meloy, a gifted songwriter, a keen student of virtually every musical form of the past 150 years and one of the most intelligent and literate lyricists around. He's like a brilliant young English professor who also happens to front a cool band. (How many other pop songwriters use descriptions like "soft as fontanelle"?) This is the group's major label debut, but if you assume that means they retreated from their eccentricities and played it safe, you're wrong. In addition to the baroque pop and folk influences and traditional song structures that usually characterize their sound, many of the tracks on this record have a distinct prog-rock vibe -- heavy electric keyboards and all -- and go on for more than 10 minutes. If anything, this record is less catchy and accessible than their previous effort, last year's excellent Picaresque, but in many ways this also is the better record, particularly for listeners who are willing to work a little harder to appreciate the exceptional craft and beauty of what Meloy and his cohorts have accomplished here. Beautifully produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie, this is, quite simply, one of the very best records I heard this year.

LISTEN / DOWNLOAD: O Valencia!, which, despite all the odd and hopefully not off-putting descriptions of the band's sound that I've used above, is just a terrific little pop song. Okay, okay, it's a man's lament for his lover, shot dead by her enraged father as they tried to elope. Still, catchy as hell.