Honey on "The Hazards Of Love" by the Decemberists

Great job, Decemberists! I absolutely love this album -- I mean, I've always liked the band, but this completely blows me away. It deserves a place in the rock canon along with concept greats like the Who's "Tommy", Pink Floyd's "Dark Side" and the Kinks' "Arthur", all renown not only for their marvelous execution of a theme but (perhaps more importantly) for being musically brilliant.

Most of the reviews I've read are somewhere between tepid and warm -- there seems to be a consensus dismissal of the album as a prog-roots '70s throwback. It's true, they don't make albums like this anymore. Ya know why? Because reviewers don't understand or appreciate them!

That, and (really) the medium is the message: "album-oriented rock" was a natural outgrowth of a) the invention of LPs and b) the proliferation of FM radio. The advent of the MP3 devolved music back to the '50s and the era of 45s. While rich in musical texture, "The Hazards Of Love" is devoid of a catchy stand-out single. On their own, I personally think the songs are really good -- but, like any truly "great" album, the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Since Napster, the big record labels have mounted a massive PR campaign of lies. They want you to think they're in danger of going out of business, which they are not. (I bet people who do not actually make music will still find a way to make money off of music for the rest of eternity.) They want you to think that, if they do go out of business, there will be no such thing as music, which is an even bigger, more obvious lie. (It puts the cart in front of the horse. Not even, because a horse could still push a cart. The label system is just a parasite on music.)

Take "The Hazards Of Love" as a case in point: there is no market for an album like this. It won't appeal to reviewers or salesmen. But it is a truly great work of art. The fact that it exists proves the recording industry wrong. Maybe it will take time for people to come around to this album before it gets the recognition it deserves, or maybe everybody will just move on to the next big thing and the next big thing, and we've reached the end of "history" as such because the scale and pace of our globalized system renders noteworthy achievements fleeting and meaningless. Whatever. "Hazards" is still awesome.

Anyway, if you're going to buy an album, you should buy this one. Partly to stick it to the man, and partly because it's so packed, it gets better the more you listen to it. I'm already committed to playing it until I get sick of it -- how long that takes will be the final test of its greatness.

And to satisfy your free music fix: the Decemberists debuted the album live at SXSW and you can hear it streamed on NPR's All Songs Considered website, or download the performance as a podcast from iTunes.