[rating=7.00]
Almost two decades on from the release of their debut EP, 5 Songs, The Decemberists have finally decided to take their sound in a new direction. Up to this point, the band has garnered quite the following with their mostly acoustic-based indie songs that, more often than not, center around lyrics that tell tales of bygone times. Their eighth album, I’ll Be Your Girl, finds the Portland-based indie darlings venturing out of their comfort zones with a more synth-laden sound.
While the first track on the album, “For Once in My Life”, starts with the acoustic guitar strumming that fans have enjoyed on past albums, it’s not long before Colin Maloy’s vocals and guitar is joined by synthesizers, effects-loaded drums and a guitar riff that sounds like it was lifted straight out of an eighties new wave song. The first single from the album, “Severed”, is also the most unique on the album. It sounds exactly like what you would expect if you combined The Decemberists and Joy Division, making it the most stand-out track on I’ll Be Your Girl. “Everything Is Awful” is another distinctive track with the titular lyrics being sung in delayed rounds and bringing to mind the sounds of They Might Be Giants. The eight-minute “Rusalka, Rusalka/The Wild Rushes” begins dark and somber before launching into more joyous chord structures. The title-track closes the album and finds the band back in their comfort zone with an excellent song that seems like it could’ve come from any of past albums.
I’ll Be Your Girl is a small change for The Decemberists. It finds them with one foot out of their comfort zone and the other solidly stuck in their own sound of the past two decades. The tracks that fully embrace a new direction are solid enough that had they wanted to, the whole album could have been made up of synth-based material and it would have worked well. However, their own sound is what they do best and overall I’ll Be Your Girl is still a great album, if not the most cohesive. If they continue to explore new sounds it will be interesting to hear what their next album could hold.
