Colin Meloy has a voice from another time. So it’s not surprising that he finds inspiration in topics that have a mythical, long ago feeling to them. The singer and primary songwriter of Portland, Ore.-based band The Decemberists often tackles lonesome, literary folk-rock fables about everything from Chinese trapeze artists to mariners stuck in the belly of a whale. That old-fashioned feel is partly due to their accordion- and fiddle-laden arrangements and partly due to Meloy’s preference for dated words like “shanty” and “palanquin.” But it’s mostly the result of Meloy’s nasal, thin and remote voice that always sound as if he’s singing to us from deep in the past.
Earlier this year, the Decemberists released their sixth studio album The King Is Dead. And they’re already back with a follow-up EP aptly titled Long Live The King. Though it’s composed of six songs that didn’t make it onto The King Is Dead, that doesn’t mean they’re throwaways; the 10-song album was so compact that its trimmed fat could have easily been left on it.
(c) Entertainment.com
