3/5
The Decemberists’ darling of a concept album The Crane Wife back in ’06 apparently failed to whet their dream of composing a medievalist rock opera. And, that’s exactly what The Hazards of Love is ‘mdash; a mystic saga of tragic lovers, starring Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond as the maiden Margaret, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond as the Forest Queen and the Decemberists’ own Colin Meloy as ‘hellip; what was he again?
The first problem with the narrative-as-an-album scheme lies in Meloy’s insistence on playing the narrator, the Rake and Margaret’s lover William in his delicate, watery tenor ‘mdash; even books on tape usually come up with more vocal variation.
Hazards’ other woe as a 58-minute-long epic is that it’s a 58-minute-long epic. It’s the entire album, or bust ‘mdash; and who has the time, not to mention the patience, to listen that closely in an age of iPod Shuffles?
Still, the the Decemberists’ velvety baroque endures Meloy’s ambition. Stark’s wavering, flutey vocals float high above harpsichords; Worden’s musky, powerful alto trembles to the Queen of the Forest’s vintage rock thuds, all heavy electric guitar chords and thunderous bass knells.
Meloy’s nasal whine underscores both William’s fragility ‘mdash; accompanied by the folksy strum of an acoustic guitar and soft pats on the bongo ‘mdash; and the Rake’s sneering, hickish drawl.
Each element of Love’s detail-oriented orchestration echoes a deeply bruised organ note, oppressing even the most sugary strains like poisonous apples. There are no happy endings here: only the curse that the title forewarns.