I heard of this group through NPR and The Colbert Report and figured I would give it a spin. I have to say I am quite happy with the money spent.

The Crane Wife is performed by The Decemberists and released in 2006. It is the bands first on Capitol Records. The album was inspired by a Japanese Folk tale and is told in 2 song cycles; The Crane Wife and The Island, the later of which is apparently inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

The story of the Crane Wife

Here is a brief synopsis of the tale of the Crane Wife, which I remember studying this in class some time ago.

The Crane Wife is an old Japanese tale. While there are many variations of the tale, a common version is that a poor man finds an injured crane on his doorstep (or outside with an arrow in it), takes it in and nurses it back to health. After he releases the crane, a woman appears at his doorstep with whom he falls in love and marries. Because they need money, his wife offers to weave wondrous clothes out of silk that they can sell at the market, but only if he agrees never to watch her making them. They begin to sell them and live a comfortable life, but he soon makes her weave them more and more. Oblivious to his wife’s diminishing health, his greed increases. He eventually peeks in to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is a crane plucking feathers from her own body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.

Band leader Colin Meloy found a version of this story and decided to write music based on it.

src: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crane_Wife

Track Listing

I bought my version on iTunes so I got a bonus track (though apparently the Starbucks version comes with 2 bonus tracks)

1. “The Crane Wife 3″ – 4:18
2. “The Island”: – 12:26
   1. Come and See
   2. The Landlord’s Daughter
   3. You’ll Not Feel the Drowning
3. “Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)” – 4:18
   • Duet with Laura Veirs
4. “O Valencia!” – 3:47
5. “The Perfect Crime #2″ – 5:33
6. “When the War Came” – 5:06
7. “Shankill Butchers” – 4:39
8. “Summersong” – 3:31
9. “The Crane Wife 1 & 2″ – 11:19
10. “Sons & Daughters” – 5:13
11. Bonus Track: “After the Bombs” - 5:04 (iTunes Bonus Track)

Opinion

The Decemberists have been described as wordy, literate, progressive rock. I have to agree that is what you get and I also admit - I love it! I had a level of expectations for this disc but no idea of what I was actually getting. I bought this on some faith and a hunch. I am really glad I did. The album (yes - Thank God! A TRUE ALBUM!!) is very enjoyable. There is A LOT to listen to, but the first 2 tracks, though nearly 20 minutes between the 2 of them, are very accessible and draw you into the album with “The Crane Wife 3″ begin hooky and folky with a nice chorus, and The Island being a suite in traditional prog ways (including moog solo!). The other tracks hold up well but don’t expect lots of long instrumental passages. This reminds me at times (and I hate doing these sounds like things) to the folker side of Genesis , though Colin Meloy’s vocal styles are not like Gabriel’s in any way. As a matter of fact, he can be quite hard to understand at times and the lyrics are not immediately accessible because of vocabulary and the concept.

I do not thing that these will take away from the listener that actually wants to spend sometime with the music. It takes a while to warm up after the first 2 tracks but you start to see the reoccurring themes and lyrical content. Listen while reading the liner notes ( WOW! am I showing my age?).

I have to admit, this is the first disc since Little By Little… by Harvey Danger that I have been excited by. So much so, that their back catalog will be bought up soon. Maybe I am a big geek for wordy, odd, proggy, folky, music and if so, I am proud of my music geek-ness.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 1:30 am and is filed under Music.