The Decemberists - The Rake’s Song

The driving, bouncy acoustic guitar, coupled with the lyrics announcing the 21 year-old narrator’s recent marriage, sets a lighthearted tone at the outset of the new Decemberists single ‘The Rake’s Song’, from their excellent full-length record ‘The Hazards Of Love’. But that cheery mood is soon dashed, as the subject grows weary of the responsibilities of fatherhood, and starts dispatching with his offspring, one by one. A harder edge is introduced into the song as the subject matter becomes darker, which only adds to it’s ominous theme and feel. The song undoubtedly is gruesome and grim, but remains somehow catchy and a bit of a sing-along, no matter how dire the subject matter.

The track is robbed a bit of it’s meaning when heard strictly as a single, as opposed to being heard as a small but crucial fragment of the sprawling storytelling found on the album. But that doesn’t take away from the truly arresting narrative at the heart of the song. If it wasn’t so indelible (and fictional, of course), the song would stand as a horrible example of the depths of depravity that people can sink to. But as it is, the song represents another fine example of songwriting from front man Colin Meloy (a new father himself, which perhaps adds to the shocking substance of the song), who again takes another obscure work (this time a 1966 EP by Anne Brigg’s titled ‘The Hazards Of Love’) and uses it as inspiration for a brilliant new record filled with many striking and memorable tracks like ‘The Rake’s Song’.