The Hazards of Love

This is really cool. Requires a relisten and a deep dive on the story. That organ is wailing on The Queen's Rebuke.

While note my favorite Decemberists album, certainly a fun one (prefer all 4 proceeding albums by a significant margin). I don't know if I fully appreciated this album until I saw them perform it live. I think the overall structure suffers a little bit from them trying to force the cohesive theme and rock opera elements, but certainly pockets of great songmanship. Love The Rake Song. 4/5

Mjaa ihan ok indie-rock-ooppera.

not 1st listen- that was about a month ago. I knew it was on here from the user album list, I just got impatient.
Funny enough, this was recommended to me during high school, by someone I haven't seen since like, 2015. I've been listening to this band ever since- "Sons and Daughters", "The Mariner's Revenge", "I Was Meant For the Stage"- but for some reason I always put off this one.
Maybe I always liked the idea of a rock opera more than I did actively seeking them out. I love albums like Tommy and The Wall, but I really don’t care about the story so much as I do seeing how these rock bands create a cohesive, musical movement complete with motifs and multi-part suites.
The Hazards of Love isn’t that complicated, musically or story-wise; Meloy’s lyricism and voice, as well as the guest stars on this album, are what keep the tragic lovers’ tale from becoming too predictable.
My feeling in the first half, that they don’t use enough musical motifs or “ingredients”- how many times do we have to hear that sludgy metal riff, as good as it is?- is assuaged by the album’s second half, where strings, harpsichord and freaky atmospheres combine to make a pretty great payoff.
Re-listening to the final track here, “The Hazards of Love 4”, is one of the rare times the album sounds like the Decemberists. Obviously I know that’s subjective, as they continue to experiment with genre. 2024’s insane “Joan and the Garden” might be one of my favourite songs of theirs, and it’s reminiscent of The Hazards in parts.

Anyway, while I don’t think this is the best introduction to the band, it’s still an ambitious and worthy entry to their catalogue

I am admittedly a sucker for The Decemberists and concept albums.

Favorite songs: The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid, The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned), The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing, Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga), The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone), The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All), The Abduction of Margaret

Least favorite songs: Prelude, Margaret in Captivity, The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)

3/5

Really liked this. Kept changing direction and never not interesting. Reminded me of Mansun just a little bit.

I really want to like this album, I like what I've heard of them, and they seem like solid songwriters. But this album felt long and repetitive. I appreciated when the musicianship switched about halfway through, but nothing really stuck out, and the album seemed to drag on. I want to try more from this style of music, and I appreciate a modern rock opera, but this wasn't my cup of tea.

One of my favorite concept albums ever. Beautiful and lush with great lyrics and deep themes.

Prog folk Americana PNW rock opera, with hints of a few other genres as well. Reminds me of Biffy, Flaming Lips, Roddy Woomble, and many others at different times.
Maybe a bit overblown and pretentious, but not overly so. The different voices for (almost) each character works well, an idea clearly taken from (traditional) opera.
A band I will explore further when I have the time.
Scores precisely 3.5, but I'm choosing to round up!

Apparently I had no idea what The Decemberists' deal is. I was bracing myself for Flaming Lips style soft boy indie music, and instead I got a rock opera! Very good submission, I feel like Meat Loaf was the closest the original list came to allowing Theatre-adjacent stuff into it

Enjoyed this good rock opera, like the different vocalist for different characters brings it to life more.

I wish they'd go hard more than they go pretty, and I wish they'd altogether avoid going twangy.