The back catalogue of this much-loved American band is strewn with literate, epic and theatrical indie-folk-rock. However, while the theatricality is still in evidence, frontman and songwriter Colin Meloy has branched out considerably on I’ll Be Your Girl, musically speaking, embracing synths (gasp!), fretless bass and dance grooves, as well as a mind-boggling mix of the playful and serious. That’s OK in theory. It’s perfectly right that a band, any band – especially ones that have been around as long as these guys – should explore new avenues, fuse the old with the new, and ditch old habits and comfort zones. That’s why they took on a different producer, John Congleton, and decamped to a new studio. As Meloy has said about the album, “When you’ve been in a band for 17 years, inevitably there are habits you fall into. We wanted to free ourselves from old patterns and give ourselves permission to try something different.”

I’ll Be Your Girl is certainly different, even if there are some strong echoes of what we are used to. It’s particularly there on the pumping dance rocker ‘Severed’, with a heavy riff and synth arpeggio melody driving Meloy’s thoughts on the demagoguery of Mr. Trump, who is seemingly at the forefront of many-an-American artist these days. “I alone am the answer, I alone will make things right”, he sings with the help of his band that includes guitarist Chris Funk, keyboardist Jenny Conlee, bassist Nate Query, and drummer John Moen.

‘Cutting Stone’, meanwhile, effortlessly combines fretless bass with traditional folk-rockism of the kind that Steeleye Span and the Oysterband traded in back in the day. It’s all good stuff this, The Decemberists refusing to freeze their style, record after record. This new approach can also be heard on the off-the-wall galloping ‘Knights of Cydonia’ vibes of ‘Your Ghost’ and final track, the swaying acoustic-lounge rhythm of ‘I’ll Be Your Girl’.

Meanwhile the eight minute epic that is ‘Rusalka, Rusalka / Wild Rushes’ is a return to the synthesis of prog-rock, balladry and Celtic folk, a song serious in purpose. While ‘Sucker’s Prayer’ has a 70s California rock aesthetic, a deceptive musical playfulness, complete with searing guitar solo and rollicking piano flourishes, counteracted by the heavy, if ironic, lyrical sentiments: “I want to love somebody, but I don’t know how / I’ve been so lonely and it’s getting me down / I wanna throw my body in the river and drown”.

Elsewhere, however, things get a little dodgy, depending on your tastes, of course. Lead track ‘Once In My Life’ relies on a big, anthemic chorus (no verses), with bombastic synths, recalling those epic bands of the 80s such as Simple Minds. Yet nothing really happens here beyond the enticing first minute or so, the lack of dynamic surprising and self-defeating. Then there’s a trio of songs towards the end of the album; ‘Everything Is Awful’ is repeated endlessly in a slightly nauseatingly chirpy faux-irony: “What’s that crashing sound that follows us around? That’s the sound of all things good breaking / Put your fears to rest, you know it’s for the best,” sings Meloy in his less than usual sophisticated literariness. While the equally sloganeering ‘We All Die Young’ (based on something his father said once) is underpinned by a stomping glam beat, somewhat distastefully reminiscent of Gary Glitter’s two drum stomp of ‘Rock and Roll Part 2’, with children (!!) incongruously chanting the title, whilst a drunken-sounding sax solo just adds to the oddness.

Their most eclectic album yet, and sprinkled with some gems, I’ll Be Your Girl is however rather a fitful and incohesive work that leaps around from full-on irony and jokiness, to heartfelt observations about relationships and the like. While Meloy purposefully eschewed any obvious themes, and believes that the songs share a mood that is steeped in our current times and condition (“exuberant nihilism” as he calls it), this mood may be enlightening, but runs a little counter to his usually more thoughtful and nuanced observations and storytelling.

Jeff Hemmings

Website: decemberists.com
Facebook: facebook.com/thedecemberists
Twitter: twitter.com/TheDecemberists