Decemberists - The Tain (CD 2007)

It's the Decemberists - what's not to like? Released in 2005 this mini-opus in 5 parts is also included on the excellent 2007 DVD 'A Practical Handbook' complete with strange but wonderful puppeteering. Coming in at just over 18 minutes it lurches happily between cheeky guttersniping and punchy bombast - Jenny Conlee's 'Jon Lord' keyboard is utterly brilliant as usual giving the whole affair a driving force it would otherwise lack. She makes for a most unlikely Rock God. Colin Meloy is surely an Anglophile of the first order - he's more English than me! The Tain is filled with juicy lyrics bordering on profanity and bawdiness - as hard to comprehend as usual but probably worthy of someone's English Comprehension course work. You get the feeling a story is being told of something slightly unwholesome but still utterly fascinating. I still feel I have to draw the odd comparison to Jethro Tull's 70's output which is also just fine by me - there's just an occasional lovely whiff of Songs From The Wood or Minstrel In The Gallery about Colin's writing. The tempo and atmosphere changes throughout the work are numerous and excellently managed and this EP is essential to the completist.
Anyway it's great - just buy it!
Long Live The Decemberists.