The Decemberists -‘What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World.’ (Rough Trade)

The Decemberists are one of those bands that I’ve always been aware of, and liked what I’ve heard without being particularly blown away. However, their seventh album is one of the first great albums of 2015, and it’s one of those albums that not only do you want to go back and listen to it all over again when it’s finished, but you also want to go and check out their back catalogue.

All though derided in certain corners as being a hipster band, what it comes down to on this record is simply the songs. And whilst the album starts off with the pretty good ‘The Singer Addresses His Audience’ but there’s three absolutely brilliant tracks on the album which are worth the price of admission alone -‘Cavalry Captain,’ ‘Philomena’ and ‘Lake Song.’

And in a funny way, though it sounds nothing like it, it’s rather like the warm, fuzzy feeling you got listening to Vampire Weekend, that of a great collection of songs. Sure it may soundtrack campuses, but the last time I checked, that wasn’t a hanging offence.

And it’s also worth noting, that it was on their seventh album, Out Of Time, that REM truly went massive, Just saying, likes…

What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World is released by Rough Trade on January 19.