| Product Summary | | Label: Capitol | | UPC: 00094635398427 | | Release Date: 10/3/2006 | | Buy.com Sku: 203030405 | | Item#: M36KKV | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Crane Wife 3, The ~ The Decemberists |  | | 2. Medley ~ The Decemberists | | | 3. Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) ~ The Decemberists | | | 4. O Valencia! ~ The Decemberists | | | 5. Perfect Crime, The ~ The Decemberists | | | 6. When The War Came ~ The Decemberists | | | 7. Shankill Butchers ~ The Decemberists | | | 8. Summersong ~ The Decemberists | | | 9. Crane Wife 1& 2, The ~ The Decemberists | | | 10. Sons & Daughters ~ The Decemberists | |
| The Crane Wife is a resounding celebration of life. No matter how dark the words may get, the album's spirit is buoyed by boundless energy and an expansive musical vocabulary. Styles and influences abound -- shades of Pink Floyd, Yes, and Fairport Convention trade off with more anthemic touchstones like middle-period R.E.M., The Waterboys, and even early U2 - but the sound of The Decemberists is unique in contemporary pop music.
"Another extraordinary Decemberists album." Billboard
"The Crane Wife not only matches past pop glories, in most cases, it tops them." E! Online
"The band's most ambitious, mind-blowing, and best record yet. " Tiny Mix Tapes
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | The Decemberists: Colin Meloy (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bouzouki, percussion); Chris Funk (guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, banjo, bouzouki, hammer dulcimer, hurdy-gurdy, percussion, background vocals); Eyvind Kang (violin, viola); Nate Query (cello, upright bass, electric bass, percussion, background vocals); Jenny Conlee (accordion, Wurlitzer piano, Hammond b-3 organ, pump organ, Moog synthesizer, glockenspiel, percussion, background vocals); Christopher Walla (keyboard, background vocals); John Moen (drums, percussion, background vocals); Steve Drizos (drums); Ezra Holbrook (background vocals). | | In 2006, the Decemberists unveiled their Capitol Records debut, THE CRANE WIFE, after three albums for the indie label Kill Rock Stars. Happily, the revered Portland, Oregon-based crew, captained by singer/guitarist Colin Meloy, made the journey into major waters with their quirky, days-of-old sound firmly intact, as revealed on the wistful acoustic "The Crane Wife 3" and the more upbeat "O Valencia!" which stands out as one of the Decemberists' catchiest songs. The group also indulges in the more dramatic, narrative aspect of its aesthetic on two extended tracks that each pass the 10-minute mark, proving without a doubt that any potential corporate allegiance is far outweighed by the fascinating siren call of Meloy's own muse. |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | The Decemberists - The Crane Wife - CD Cinema Blend CD Reviews Published on: 9/29/2006 | | Drawing inspiration from everything "folk"-music, lore, and style-the fourth studio release by The Decemberists has grown right out of Japanese legend. The tale is of a poor man who abuses the wealth his wife brings him, consequently realizing that she is secretly a crane that he nursed back to health days before. The crane then flies away, and the remaining sentiment is melancholic and downtrodden-perfect for the opening track to a Decemberists' album. ...read the full review |
| The Decemberists - The Crane Wife - CD By: Seth Todd - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 12/7/2006 4:49 AM | | With so much literary focus (as a whole) being turned to The Decemberists, their latest release and major label debut, The Crane Wife, has musicality that exceeds expectation and rebels against such a limited interpretation. Leader Colin Meloy employs his masterful work of historical artistry that is, at its best, literature about war and death (and thus, any notion of straight storytelling antics is gone). And it is the combination of flawlessly constructed music with striking lyrics that declares that this group is not to be missed. Each element works to create - its an artist's dream.
...read the full review |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 10/03/2006 | | Original Release Date : 2006 | | Catalog ID : 53984 | | Label : Capitol/EMI Records | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00094635398427 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.69)
- 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[The] affectations are rendered tolerable by Meloy's unmistakable melodic gift....There's a kick in the way song after song masks his darkish vision in elegantly hooky arrangements..."Rolling Stone (p.105)
- Ranked #23 in Rolling Stone's "The Top 50 Albums Of 2006" -- "[W]ith electric guitars, prog-rock bravado and even Seventies funk..." Spin (p.103)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "[Meloy's] verses are sharp and smart....This is the best-sounding Decembrists album to date." Spin (p.61)
- Ranked #11 in Spin's "The 40 Best Albums of 2006" -- "[T]he band's emotive narratives...feel very much here and now." Entertainment Weekly (p.68)
- "Colin Meloy specializes in lurid historical dramas....Several of these studies in heartbreak and homicide rank among his most moving." -- Grade: B Q (p.99)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "It's rendered intriguing by a liberated approach that touches on everything from sea shanties to Jewish klezmer music without ever losing sight of the tune." Uncut (p.73)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "[They are] twisting the esoteric into arresting and complex new shapes." Alternative Press (p.188)
- "[S]hrewder minds among us will be right at home with the complex wordplay and tragic love in 'O Valencia!' and the three-part title track, as well as the new wrinkles of prog rock and art-school funk..." Magnet (p.93)
- "THE CRANE WIFE is an admirable experiment, the work of a band approaching the thorny major-label issue by willfully mucking with a proven sound." Q (Magazine)
(p.78)
- Ranked #28 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2007" -- "[With] nods to nu-folk, baroque pop and even '70s prog." ShakingThrough.net 9 of 10
Let's not beat around the bush. The Crane Wife is the Decemberists' best album. This statement could be prefaced with descriptions of how this niche indie-rock band with a penchant for storytelling mushroomed its fan base over three albums and two EPs, only to be picked up by a major label, and is now poised to release an album that will deliver their sound to an even wider audience, but that's beside the point. The Crane Wife is an album that nicely fits into the Decemberists' universe and has roots in earlier works, but sounds -- and hangs together -- better than any of them. - Peter Landwehr
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| | Bio | | | The Decemberists Decemberists' songwriter and frontman Colin Meloy first came across the story of The Crane Wife several years ago, in the children?s section of a bookstore in Portland. A venerable Japanese folk tale that has been handed down in countless variations and translations through the centuries (as venerable folk tales are wont to do), the deceptively simple story has stayed with Meloy ever since. ?I thought that it would be a great thing to try to put it to some sort of song form, be it a single tune or something longer,? he recalls. ?So I struggled with that for years until finally I realized that it just needed more parts and set about building those.? He had plenty to occupy him in the meantime: the past three years have seen his band, The Decemberists rise to the first rank of the indie music world with a series of bold, beautiful albums, including 2005?s Picaresque and Her Majesty, The Decemberists (2003). On these albums, Meloy?s crafty compositions marry an infallible melodic knack with a venturesome lyrical palette equally suitable for painting fantastical songs full of sea captains, legionnaires, chimney sweeps and seekers of all kinds.
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