In my opinion, one of the best albums of the year is one you may not have heard of: Picaresque by The Decemberists, released in May of this year. The Decemberists, if you haven’t heard of them, write some brainy-yet-catchy indie pop with a dark sense of humour, with their subject matter often set in old Europe in the age of empires. If Melville’s Ishmael (Moby Dick) or Conrad’s Marlow (Heart of Darkness) had packed MP3 players to pass the time while on their ships, they’d have included Decemberists MP3s in their sets.
I have a couple of favourite tracks on this album — the anti-war Sixteen Military Wives (the video for which is available via Bittorrent) which features some of the catchiest pop hooks this side of Ben Folds, and The Mariner’s Revenge Song, a sea chanty in which the accordion is very prominently featured. It’s a delicious tale of a man who seeks revenge on the man who seduced and then bankrupted his widowed mother. I offer this song to you as today’s Advent calendar goodie [6.0MB, MP3] and recommend that you buy the album. Enjoy!