REVIEW -- THE DECEMBERISTS: THE HAZARDS OF LOVE

The Decemberists

The Hazards of Love

(Capitol)

Proggy smartypants the Decemberists have always made a big deal about their proggy smartypants ways. Frontman Colin Meloy rattles off multi-syllabic words while the rest of the group pieces together 15-minute epics about seafaring waifs on violins, cellos, banjos, and whatever else they find in the studio. The band’s fifth album, The Hazards of Love, is its most ambitious and bloated. But it’s also the kind of record you won’t mind listening to a couple more times just so you can figure out what’s going on with the story (something about a woman who’s raped by a forest creature) and in the grooves (the hour-long opus features instruments usually reserved for symphonic orchestras – try to name them all!). It even starts with a “Prelude” that takes its entire three minutes to build to an audible level. After that, it’s acoustic guitars, organ solos, and a four-part title suite sprinkled over 17 songs. It’s just like one of those albums Genesis used to make, back when Peter Gabriel was leading them dressed like a flower. But Meloy’s indie-rock cred lets him get away with the cryptic verses, overstuffed arrangements, and general self-importance that weighed down ’70s prog-rock. But that doesn’t make The Hazards of Love any less laborious. Still, the sweeping grandeur of “The Hazards of Love (Wager All)” and “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid”’s mid-song style shifts at least keep all that pretension sorta interesting. --Michael Gallucci