The Decemberists - "As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again"
Or, "It's All Going To Hell, But At Least We're All Going To Die"
One of the best Indie Rock and Folk acts I’ve discovered since beginning this journey, The Decemberists are an incredibly stable and long-running band from Portland, Oregon. They originally formed in 2000, released their debut album in 2002, and haven’t had a lineup change since 2006, shortly after the release of their third album.
The Decemberists lean into folktales and wild imaginings frequently in their music; one of my favorites is the eight-minute ‘narrative suite’1 “Rusalka, Rusalka/Wild Rushes” (from their last album, 2018’s I’ll Be Your Girl), which calls on the folk legends of sinister water spirits, such as (and specifically, in this case) the Rusalki from Slavic folklore. And even when they aren’t directly pulling from these sorts of old stories, legends, or myths, their songs hearken back to that tone with an omnipresent darkness and an old-timey, or sometimes downright archaic, vocabulary. There are very few songs in their library which feel ‘bright’ or ‘happy’.
And they’re really good at these dark, somber songs because vocalist Colin Meloy’s voice just fits right into that tone, effortlessly. But despite the overall tone, their songs are also, frequently, very lush. There’s a lot of instrumental variety within and between songs, and their melodic hooks are typically unique and catchy.
All of the above here illustrates my expectations going into As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again (herein, simply “As It Ever Was”), which is their ninth studio album, and the first in six years. They were high in my list of possibilities for the Most Wanted Albums of 2024 which I published back in January.
Those same expectations were immediately met by opening track, “Burial Ground”, which includes the lines “This world’s all wrong/So let’s go where we belong”, and includes a background brass buzz which gives the song a necessary extra layer of oomph to contrast the deadpan melody. This intro is immediately followed by “Oh No!”, a Latin-infused number which, after some research, seems to most closely follow the Calypso style, minus the steel drum,2 but it’s likely a mash-up of some sort. Either way, it’s a fun tune with not-so-fun lyrics.
As It Ever Was continues on in this way, with the first four songs all taking on vastly different styles. But track 4, “Long White Veil”, acts as a sort of funnel. This track, with it’s thick Country/Folk styling and rich steel guitar, leads into a string of more-and-more-threadbare folk songs, with elements gradually removed and pared back with each passing song. By the time you get to tracks 7 & 8, “The Black Maria”3 and “All I Want is You”, respectively, all that’s left is acoustic guitar, forlorn vocals, and a touch of brass. In the latter, it’s only really during the chorus, and even then, it’s barely there.
I mean, there’s no way that this breakdown in sound isn’t intentional. And having this string end in a police state and a desperate clinging to just having the person you love near you… It feels very on-the-nose.
The album takes a sharp turn with track 9, “Born to the Morning”, which feels unreal. There’s a ton of reverb or something on the guitar and vocals. It is one of the most positive-sounding songs I’ve ever heard from The Decemberists, but it’s also pervaded by this notion of delusion and fakeness, and then you get dumped right into “America Made Me”. And the satirical veneer here is thin, with a tune which is possibly even more upbeat than the preceding mindfuck.
The album’s arc changes again here. The next two tracks, “Tell Me What’s On Your Mind” and “Never Satisfied” seem to deal with our collective state of mind nowadays — at least to some extent. But album closer “Joan in the Garden” is largely, ostensibly, about Joan of Arc; apparently Colin Meloy went on a kick reading about her, and this song is a byproduct of that. At first I was unsure of how this NINETEEN-MINUTE MONSTROSITY fit into the album’s overaching themes and motifs, but in reading through the lyrics and paying closer attention, it became obvious:
Over stone and grapevine Over the souls on the breadline There's a reckoning at hand Our hand See them flayed at the flagpole Catch it all on your console We have come at your command We stand We stand
I think it’s pretty obvious to most Americans that our political landscape has been pretty dire for about a solid decade now, and it feels like it’s worse every year with the increasing polarization fed by private propaganda campaigns. With a second Trump term looking possible and Project 2025 hanging over our heads; with the series of catastrophic SCOTUS rulings; with the sheer lack of hope to be found…
As It Ever Was and its finale hit pretty hard. I mean, the six-minute interlude in which the music breaks down to a series of seemingly random sounds and effects doesn’t…I don’t know if the band has something planned for that bit in live performances, but it feels unnecessary in the studio version.4
Despite the few hiccups in execution, I think As It Ever Was’s structure mostly works very well. I definitely didn’t catch onto it on my first (passive) listen — in fact, that first listen came away with a lot of concern because I did catch the sort of monotonous mid-album descent, and it had me feeling real concerned about listening through again. But I’m glad I did — an active listen really turned that initial opinion around.
Even the most pared-down songs here are solid; The Decemberists’ deep songwriting experience and skill really shines through in almost every moment here. At this point in their career, their approach is highly polished even if their Folk Rock style still sounds rather raw at points.
As an entire unit, this 67-minute album is a little difficult to play straight through, especially with that mid-album run. But I still highly recommend it, even if you’d rather drop it into a playlist on shuffle. If you like Folk Rock or Indie Rock, you definitely won’t regret it.
Rating: Blue
I could be wrong here, but of the styles I sampled (Samba, Flamenco, Salsa, Rhumba, and a couple of others) trying to nail down this sound, Calypso seems to best capture the instrumentation approach with the appropriate synchronization.
This title seems to refer to a slang term for a police van.
And I say this as somebody who loves long-form music so much that I keep a playlist exclusively for songs over 7.5 minutes. This would just be a little better as a 13-minute song without the WT-Fluff section, is all.