Both essential we would say.
The Decemberists have announced their new album, “As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again“, out 14th June via YABB Records (Thirty Tigers). The band returns with their ninth studio album after a 6 year hiatus, with an ambitious double album produced by lead-singer Colin Meloy and Tucker Martine and featuring guest appearances from The Shins’ James Mercer and REM’s Mike Mills. The album is available for pre-order. “As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again” is the longest Decemberists album to date (and their first intentional, proper double-LP, split into four thematic sides) but possibly also their most empathetic and accessible.
It can be preordered here: https://orcd.co/aiewsiwba
Last month, the band teased the new album with the release of the single “Burial Ground” and they will head out on an expansive North American tour with both spring and summer legs. The tour kicks off on April 30th in Kingston, NY at the Ulster Performing Arts Center and wraps up in August on the West Coast before appearing in the UK at All Points East in London on 25th August.
The Decemberists have toured the world, performed at countless major festivals, and even founded Travelers’ Rest, a festival of their own curation in Missoula, Montana. The band has appeared on The Simpsons, collaborated with Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, and released their own crowd-funded board game Illimat. Colin Meloy is also the author of ‘The Whiz Mob’ and ‘The Grenadine Kid‘ and the New York Times bestselling ‘Wildwood Chronicles’ as well as two picture books, ‘The Golden Thread: A Song for Pete Seeger’ and ‘Everyone’s Awake’. Meloy’s Wildwood Series is currently being made into an animated feature starring Carey Mulligan, Mahershela Ali, Angela Bassett, Jermaine Clement, Tom Waits and more.
Here’s a blast of their new song released this week ‘Joan In The Garden‘ – listener beware, may contain elements of prog…
Colin Meloy commented on “Joan In The Garden”: “The song has been kicking around as an idea since the ‘I’ll Be Your Girl’ sessions. I got into a Joan of Arc kick after reading Lydia Yuknavitch’s beautifully batshit novel ‘The Book of Joan.’ I wanted to make my own version of Joan — but the song that came was as much about the creative process as it was about the actual woman, about angelic visitation and creative visitation and the hallucinogenic quality of both.”
