New York, NY (Top40 Charts) When The
Decemberists made the unexpected leap to Capitol Records for their first major label album in 2006, fans' concerns of whether the band would simplify their trademark hyperliterate folk-rock or take their music in a new direction altogether quickly vanished when they delivered their most ambitious and audacious record to date in The Crane Wife. The Portland, Ore. troupe, led by songwriter Colin Meloy, challenged preconceptions with their fourth album, pushing the envelope and their fantastical music to new heights. "There are two ways we could have gone with our major label debut," frontman Meloy says. "One was to get our money's worth with an album of singles. But we would have failed, because we are not a singles band. The other was to mess with the convention of what a band's major label debut should be like." Produced by Chris Walla of
Death Cab For Cutie and producer Tucker Martine, The
Decemberists - frontman Meloy, guitarist Chris Funk, keyboard player and accordionist Jenny Conlee, bassist Nate Query and drummer John Moen - added surprising elements of '70s prog, hard rock and even quasi-disco to their folk-rock palette. The album included two mini-epics, the 12-minute multi-part opus, "The Island," and the album's namesake: a three-part suite based on the Japanese folk tale opens the 10-song collection with its mournful conclusion and bookends it with the fable's beautiful beginning.
In celebration of The Crane Wife's 10th anniversary, Capitol Records/UMe will release the album as a limited edition deluxe vinyl box set on December 9. The comprehensive collection will include five LPs featuring the original album as a double LP plus three additional records filled with b-sides and bonus tracks, unreleased outtakes, alternate versions and Meloy's solo acoustic demos. Records four and five collect demos of nearly every song on the album, including the three-part "The Crane Wife" together as one composition in its original sequence. The set will also include a Blu-Ray of a two-hour concert filmed live for NPR's second-ever webcast in 2006 at Washington, D.C.'s famed 9:30 Club, which has never been commercially available. A 20-page booklet will include liner notes from rock historian
David Fricke, senior writer for Rolling Stone, and an essay by avowed fan Lin-Manuel Miranda, the award-winning composer, lyricist, writer and performer behind the Tony and Pulitzer-prize winning play "Hamilton." The band is also offering a special, highly limited color pressing of 500 copies on marbled red vinyl, available now for pre-order exclusively at Decemberists.com.
When released on October 3, 2006, The Crane Wife was instantly hailed by longtime fans and lauded by critics. Stereogum declared it a "masterpiece," The Guardian described it as "bold and wondrous" and the New York Times called it "the band's sharpest and most satisfying work." Pitchfork awarded it Best New
Music and remarked it "further magnifies and refines their strengths." The album topped dozens of year-end lists including Rolling Stone, SPIN, Pitchfork, Entertainment Weekly, The Onion AV Club, Popmatters and NPR where the band was picked by listeners as the best album of the year. The Crane Wife was The Decemberists' first album to crack Billboard's Top 40 where it peaked at Number 35. Two singles, "O Valencia!" and "The Perfect Crime #2," put the band on modern-rock radio while "The Perfect Crime #2" unexpectedly went to Number Three on Billboard's Hot Dance Singles. Three years later, The Hazards of Love - a full-length concept album based on Meloy's idea for a stage musical - was a Top 20 hit. In 2011, they released their first #1 album, The King Is Dead. Their seventh and most recent album, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World, was released in 2015 to widespread critical acclaim with Rolling Stone enthusing it "ups the hooks and deepens the emotions" and The Onion's AV Club stating it's "a record that gets better with each listen, a present-day anomaly," adding, "it's the sound of a band unafraid of taking chances."
The
Decemberists also recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for their innovative tabletop game, Illimat, created in collaboration with renowned game designer Keith Baker (Gloom, Phoenix: Dawn Command, Eberron) and longtime
Decemberists illustrator Carson Ellis. In conjunction with The Crane Wife 10th Anniversary edition, the band has announced an expansion kit for the Illimat Kickstarter campaign, which includes six exclusive Crane Wife-themed game cards and two special tokens for the occasion, both of which can be added as part of a pledge. Read more about it and back the project via Kickstarter: Illimat.com
THE DECEMBERISTS - THE CRANE WIFE
Record One: The Original Album
SIDE 1
1. The Crane Wife 3
2. The Island
- Come And See
- The Landlord's Daughter
- You'll Not Feel The Drowning
3. Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
SIDE 2
1. O Valencia!
2. The Perfect Crime #2
3 When The War Came
4. Shankill Butchers
Record 2: Original Album Plus Outtakes
SIDE 3
1. Summersong
2. The Crane Wife 1 & 2
3. Sons & Daughters
SIDE 4
1. After The Bombs
2. Culling Of The Fold
3. Hurdles Even Here
Record Three: Outtakes And Alternates
SIDE 5
1. The Perfect Crime #1 + The Day I Knew You'd Not Come Back
2. After The Bombs (Early Take)
SIDE 6
1. Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) (Alternate Take with Alela Diane)
2. Culling Of The Fold (Alternate Take with Sean Nelson)
3. Hurdles Even Here (Full Band Take)
4. The Perfect Crime #2 (Early Take)
Record Four: Home Demos
SIDE 7
1. The Island
- Come And See
- The Landlord's Daughter
- You'll Not Feel The Drowning
2. O Valencia!
3. The Perfect Crime #2
SIDE 8
1. Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) (With Carson Ellis)
2. The Capp Street Girls
3. Culling Of The Fold
4. Hurdles Even Here
Record Five: Home Demos
SIDE 9
1. Shankill Butchers (Demo)
2. Summersong (Demo)
3. The Day I Knew You'd Not Come Back (Demo)
4. The Perfect Crime #1 (Demo)
SIDE 10
1. The Crane Wife 1, 2 & 3
2. Sons & Daughters
Blu-Ray: Live At The 9:30 Club, October 29, 2006
1. The Crane Wife 3
2. The Island
3. We Both Go Down Together
4. The Gymnast, High Above The Ground
5. The Perfect Crime #2
6. Shankill Butchers
7. Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect
8. O Valencia!
9. The Legionnaire's Lament
10. 16 Military Wives
11. The Crane Wife 1 & 2
12. Sons & Daughters
13. Red Right Ankle
14. Culling Of The Fold
15. I Was Meant For The Stage
