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The Tides Will Come And Go… (A Massive Decemberists Loves Roundup)
The Decemberists are an incredible sound. (Listen to “The Island”.) Their breed of post-modern folk, mashed with subdued rock organ and accordion undertones is a brilliantly executed exploration into what you can have with amazing sound. Plus, any band that uses “would” to mean “I wish” (“Would I could afford to buy my love a fine robe,” etc.) already has a leg up. Their lyrics tell a story. Their lyrics are true poetry, with meter and metonymy and so many other forms lost in modern music.
So many times when wearing certain Threadless designs, (notably “Flowers”) people ask me “what band is that for?” Fitting, then, that their newest album’s sweeping magnum opus play the part of the concert’s focus. A story is told, and you feel complete through it.
It’s inspired some incredible designs. Here are some of my favorites:
| Squeeze Blood From Feathers : 3 This design is rather simple in its execution. It’s done very well, but I fear it doesn’t convey the depth deserving of a near-13-minute sojourn like The Island. It instead feels as a window into just a brief moment—“The curlews carve their Arabesques”, notably. |
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| Falling Away : 3 Perhaps embodying a larger view, I appreciate her facelessness, and the harsh juxtaposition of her dress against the abyss beneath her. I really like the true sense of falling backwards evoked by the hair and the circles beneath. |
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| Lost : 5 + $ Simply brilliant. Besides obviously engendering the entire piece through its subtleties, the design itself is just gorgeous. There’s no true meaning evident, but the feathers and the pistol evoke a proper confusion. |
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| The Crane Wife : 3.5 “You’ll not feel the drowning…” plays itself nicely here. I enjoy the sea and the island. But I feel as if the guitar is almost unnecessary; an allusion that breaks the fourth wall. Why remind us that we’re in a dream, a song, a story and a tragedy? No need to abstract this from what it is, for it should engulf, surround and embrace, fully. |
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| The Soldier Returns : 5 Huebucket and slaterock will really need to battle this one out. This design is captivating, unyielding in its overt, powerful complexity. The attention to detail is staggering, and the piece tells the story. A fiendishly sable feeling prevails, and I’m left only wondering what (perhaps) the soldier might look like with dimes upon his eyes. |
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| Cry Mercy : 5 + $!!! The Island is a dark, tragic song. A woman begs against her rapist, with sorrowed futility. The metaphor of the Crane pulls this piece together. The gold and silver pieces falling helpless to the floor; the only sound heard before the bizarrely quixotic, sinister theft. My God, this is brilliant. |
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This competition is a wonderful example of how brilliant art begets brilliant art. Cross-medium or otherwise, great things inspire, and you can tell which artists truly listened to the piece, and gazed upon its soul, ridiculous as it may sound. (I’m on play through number 10 for today…) I appreciate the efforts especially of huebucket and slaterock, whom I believe really got it.
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Bree said,
December 20, 2006 @ 12:15 pm
Nice summarization of some awesome designs. Cry Mercy is, by far, one of my top favorites in this contest now.
trevor "el vez" said,
December 28, 2006 @ 12:18 am
hey …check out my new decemberist sub….i want to see if you can bump me up …to more than a 3? well? you wanted me to dig deeper….well?