ERIK JACOBS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBEColin Meloy and the Decemberists will play their new concept album in its entirety.
(Erik Jacobs for The Boston Globe)
Decemberists have 'Love' story to tell
ERIK JACOBS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBEColin Meloy and the Decemberists will play their new concept album in its entirety.
(Erik Jacobs for The Boston Globe)
"The Hazards of Love" isn't the Decemberists' first shot at a concept album. The literate indie rockers, led by singer-songwriter Colin Meloy, dabbled in suites and longer-form pieces on previous records, including 2006's critically acclaimed "The Crane Wife." But "Hazards" is the group's inaugural full immersion.
The story follows a fair maiden, a shape-shifting animal, a dashing lover, an evil queen, and things that go bump in the woods. When the band pulls into the
We caught up, by phone, with Meloy at an Atlanta tour stop this week to talk concepts.
Q. What was the inspiration for the fairy-tale-like story?
A. I'd been listening to a lot of old folk songs mainly from the British folk revival of the '60s and '70s, Anne Briggs, Shirley Collins, Nick Jones, and June Tabor and was beginning to notice common elements, events, and characters pop up. So I decided it would be an interesting project to take some of those motifs and stitch them all together into a narrative and see what came out.
Q. Do you find that people are saying they don't necessarily understand the story but like the record?
A. Yeah, and that's kind of intended that way. It's not supposed to be so obvious what's happening. A certain amount of the ends need to be tied just by people's own interpretations. I think of that as being in keeping with the concept record/rock opera genre that there is a certain amount of abstraction there that you have to piece together yourself.
Q. As someone interested in the form, do you have any insight as to why the concept album idea seems to be bubbling up again?
A. I don't. I had no idea that Green Day or Mastodon were doing full-form concept records. I think that everybody is just doing it on their own. There's such a massive amount of music out there that it's natural that some people are going to be exploring some of the dustier corners of rock history for their ideas. I think it's interesting and it's good that very disparate bands could be doing similar, vibey things.
Q. Do you have a favorite concept album?
A. Husker Du, "Zen Arcade." It was a very loose concept record, but it had as much influence on the making of this record as any traditional concept record. It was the one that I was really connected to growing up.
Q. Is it OK if people don't even realize there's a story?
A. Yeah. I would hope that you could listen to it peripherally, put it on while you're making dinner. I don't want to be the kind of musician who says, "You have to listen to this sitting down and listen to it all the way through." Hopefully, if you can take the time to do it, I think it's a good way to come to the record, but it's not the only way.
Q. Now you tell me, because on your website you recommend the album be "digested in one sitting, surrounded by tasseled pillows and indentured eunuchs." Do you know how hard it is to find indentured eunuchs?
A. [Laughs] I know, they're really hard to come by these days, but Craigslist probably helps out a lot. 
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