The Crane Wife has a lot to offer with a variety of sounds, from a 12-minute Floydian epic sung in three movements called “The Island: Come and See/The Landlords Daughter/ You’ll Not Feel the Drowning,” to grotesque visuals in the serial killing lullaby of “The Shankill Butchers.” Meloy’s songwriting is incredibly interesting. Narrative fiction is the nemesis for all song writers, but this is no burden for Meloy; instead, he creates it as stellar piece of art. The lyrics take us to another place. Meloy is in front of us, reading from a book, the way that mothers and teachers have done for years - now, however, the content is neither oversimplified, nor childish. Instead, the mature musical capability meets with poetics grounded in history. What we get is a rather revolutionary sound that does not conflict with the lullaby.
The Decemberists take us through a maze of unforgettable emotion that, in the end, proves to be their best work to date. A low moment cannot be found in the album. Although it is a very somber and dark album, filled with haunting rhymes of war and death, there is a stark release and unexpected lift within each song. There is hostility, a call to arms, saber-rattling, chaos, death, love, more death, calming, silence, and soon peace - every word that best describes The Crane Wife also describes war. And just as fast as it started “under the boughs unbowed,” it ends in a chant: “hear all the bombs fade away.”
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1 - Connie Phillips
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