As It Ever Was, So It's a Bop Again🎧

Happy new The Decemberists album month to all who celebrate! The Decemberists, an indie folk rock band from Portland, Oregon, released their ninth studio album, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, on June 14, 2024, in conjunction with a live and live-streamed show in their hometown. While I wasn't in Portland for the show, I did buy a ticket for the livestream (and an event t-shirt, I am nothing if not weak-willed when it comes to event shirts) and watched it cozied up on my couch the next day! It was the perfect way to enjoy some of the album's new songs and a few crowd favorites.

The Decemberists are my favorite band (followed very closely by Miss Taylor Allison Swift), and I often have some of their older records playing whenever I work from home. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World and The King is Dead remain my favorite of their releases, but after a few listens As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again is quickly becoming one I'll listen to often. The three records have a similar sound, even though I know that WaTWWaBW and TKiD are more Americana to the new album's folksy and narrative stylings.

Overall this is a no-skip album but there are a few standouts I have on repeat! Ranked from most to least favorite, here is where each song stands for me:

1. Oh No!

An absolute bop about a group of bandits crashing a wedding. Fun and upbeat even with that typical Decemberists folksy flair.

2. Long White Veil

We love a ghost story and this one is catchier than most. "I buried her, I carried her, on the very same day I married her" so easy to sing along to and we get so much characterization in a few short verses.

3. William Fitzwilliam

Anyone who knows me knows how obsessed I am with Tudor history. A quick intro to the fall of the Bolyens and the rise of the Seymours and the quick succession of queens that followed.

4. Joan in the Garden

Beautiful both lyrically and tonally. A song that seems to be about the writing process and also the timeless nature of writing? It's twenty minutes long though so if you are prone to wandering attention this may not be the song for you.

5. Never Satisfied

All this striving and searching and what does it get us? All these expectations of what we need to achieve but at the end of the day are we happy with our lives?

6. Tell Me What's On Your Mind

The story of two estranged people meeting again after years apart, desperate to know what the other is thinking and if the bridge between them can be mended and if they can be forgiven for past behavior. If you're a House of the Dragon fan then I feel like this song fits Rhaenerya and Alicent so well as they try to navigate their complicated relationship as the world falls to chaos around them.

7. Don't Go to the Woods

Could fit well onto one of their previous albums, The Hazards of Love. Sounds very much like it could be part of a stage play. Great song and easy to sing along to but it is definitely one of the slower songs on the album.

8. Black Maria & The Reapers

Pairing these two together because they sound similar and both are about how death comes for us all no matter who we are or what we do. Beautifully written and sung but their appearance close to the beginning and midway through the album make it feel repetitive.

9. All I Want is You

Soft and sweet. A ballad about how the singer just wants love, not elaborate courting rituals or for their lover to pretend to be anything more than the person they are.

10. America Made Me

Catchy and timely as we watch the world and the American democracy collapse around our heads. Begging our country to do something sweet and morally good or at the very least give us a break from the constant dread and horrors it funds and upholds. A fantastic song, just not one I find myself revisiting the most.

11. Born to the Morning

Appears in the middle of the album and feels like a retread of earlier themes. Worth a listen but not my favorite.