Decemberists are a hyperliterate indie-folk band from Portland, formed in 2000. The band formed in 2000, that is, not the city. Portland formed in 1851.
But if you read only their lyrics and song titles, you might be guilty of thinking Decemberists originated in that era, when the individualism, divine nature and intuition of transcendentalism began to give way to the gristle and grit of realism.
Of 2024’s “As it Ever Was, So It Will Be Again” NPR wrote, “There’s no shortage of death to be found in The Decemberists’ catalog and on their new album.”
As phillyburbs.com wrote in 2011, “Their lyrics are incredibly eloquent, and The Decemberists also convey a wide spectrum of emotions through their storytelling.”
Decemberists were actually pretty huge in the era of indie-folk about 15 to 20 years ago, along with Fleet Foxes. I was not a fan then, to be honest, their stuff being very twee, defined by Merrian-Webster as affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute, or quaint. I’d say they were definitely quaint, as someone raised on the sound of electric guitars from the Ramones, Fugazi, Pixies and Archers of Loaf.
But then a single Decemberists song won me over. That was the case with “Burial Ground,” a single from 2024s “As it Ever Was,” a song so harmonically catchy that some said upon its February 2024 release that it owes a possible debt to The Beach Boys’ version of “Sloop John B.”
I think that’s a simplistic comparison, made mainly because it has amazing counter harmonies with James Mercer of The Shins, another band that was huge 20 years ago, thanks in part to the indie film “Garden State.” I don’t know that the critics were right about that, but I do think if you like “Sloop John B,” you’ll also dig “Burial Ground,” which ended up topping my most played songs in 2024 on Spotify.
I’ve always been a soft touch, and so I’ve also had a soft spot for the tragic earworm “January Hymn,” which I defy you to listen to on a winter day and not just tear up a little when singer Colin Meloy’s abandoned narrator intones, “What were the words I meant to say before you left/When I could see your breath lead where you were going to.”
Very evocative stuff. The other day, I was thinking, as I do now and then, about how much their song titles and lyrics sound so earnestly 19th century, and I had a thought that gave rise to this quiz: I wonder if someone only slightly familiar with the songs of Meloy and the poems of Walt Whitman, could guess correctly which is which.
I mean, “I Dream’d in a Dream,” “Yankee Bayonet,” “Shanty for Arethusa,” “Sail out for Good, Eidolon Yacht!” and “To Those Who’ve Fail’d” seem to share a certain strand of poetic DNA. Even the most achiev’d Whitman scholar and well-manner’d Decemberists fan would mayhap concede that.
Henceforth, a quiz. To mix it up a little, I threw in some colorful headlines from Civil War-era journalists and snake oil labels and advertisements.
Decemberists title, Whitman poem, snake oil ad or Civil War headline?
From this list, try to decide whether each is an A) Decemberists title, B) Whitman poem, C) verbiage from a snake oil ad or D) a Civil War headline.
1) A Valuable Discovery
2) Lingering Last Drops
3) Here I Dreamt I was an Architect
4) Still Though the One I Sing
5) The Artilleryman’s Vision
6) When the War Came
7) The War Commenced
8) Beat! Beat! Drums!
9) To Men Only, Young or Old
10) O Me! O Life!
11) O Valencia!
12) It Has Stood the Test of 40 Years’ Trial
13) Youth, Day, Old Age and Night
14) The Grandest Discovery of the 19th Century
15) Spirit that Form’d this Scene
16) A Bower Scene
17) The Singer in the Prison
18) The Singer Addresses his Audience
19) This is Why We Fight
20) Bathed in War’s Perfume
That’s it. Answers are at the end of this week’s column. Don’t feel terrible if you did poorly. All these titles fell from the same linguistic tree, which died at least five, maybe six score ago.
Results
0-4 — 0 so terrible!
5-9 — Going somewhere
10-14 — Starting to sing the body electric
15 or more — Truly transcendent(al)
Answers:
1) c, 2) b, 3) a, 4) b, 5) b, 6) a, 7) d, 8) b, 9) c, 10) b, 11) a 12) c, 13) b, 14) c, 15) b, 16) a, 17) b, 18) a, 19) a, 20) b
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