Album of the Moment #2: The Hazards of Love

So I have been meaning to do this for months now, but every time I plan on doing so something else comes up. It's especially sad that such a thing kept happening because The Decemberists are without a doubt my favorite band ever and I even bought the album just to support them (if you know me then you also know why that is a big deal).

The Hazards of Love is the band's fifth album (and second under the Capitol Records label) and is probably their most successful one to date. I say probably because although it has not yet sold as many copies as at least one other album, it did debut at #14 and managed to sell 19,210 copies in its first week. The album was also #1 on iTunes during that time.

Now, the fun part. What makes the Hazards of Love such an interesting album, aside from the great lyrics, rhythms, and all that jazz, is that it centers around a love story that is played out across the album with recurring characters. The band's lead singer, Colin Meloy, is joined by Becky Stark (of Lavender Diamond), Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond), and Jim James (of My Morning Jacket) to spin a tale of love, pregnancy, jealousy, betrayal, and murder.

"The Hazards of Love centers around a love story, similar to the use of recurring stories in The Crane Wife: a woman named Margaret (voiced by Stark) falls in love with a shape-shifting forest dweller (voiced by Meloy). A jealous forest queen (voiced by Worden) and an ensemble of recurring characters bring conflict to the album's story arc." -Wikipedia

So yes, The Hazards of Love is a seventeen-track, 58:36-minute, adventure of sound and narrative. The band has been on the road promoting the album with their "A Short Fazed Hovel Tour" since the beginning of the year and it came to my area earlier in June but I was forced to miss it because I wasn't really interested in going to a concert by myself. I went to their concert when they were promoting their last album, The Crane Wife, back in 2006 and I caught a part of their concert (illegally from across the street) when they performed outdoors with The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2007 so it isn't like I haven't seen them before (and with their current popularity I am sure they will be back soon).

I am planning to do a full album run-through as the summer goes on that will attempt to sum up the entire album song by song and hopefully lay out the entire story. So, if you don't have the album, and don't have the internet essentially because you couldn't possibly miss this is, then I suggest you give it a listen! Do it! Do it nao!!