Album Rating: 4.0

Never listened to Offa Rex, but I do recommend Tarkio. That Omnibus compilation is very spotty, but when it hits it hits, some of the best indie pop-ish tunes I've ever heard on there.

Offa Rex I discovered a few months back and wasn't overly impressed. It has a couple good tunes though.

After giving this album several spins, I am thinking that it has some nice growing potential and I really dig it. Warm and summery tunes here, just in time.

Front half is certainly stronger, second half can be a bit middling but still pleasant before closing with the great Joan... they REALLY should have cut the center of that out

Album Rating: 3.7

This is such a great summer album. With a few more spins, I can confirm that I think this definitely takes advantage of nostalgia but it's flatly great in its own right. Definitely some fluff, but I'll take it.

Album Rating: 3.5

@Feather, legit had the same opinion of Offa Rex until I revisited them a couple of weeks ago. It's a grower for sure. Has one or two songs that are forgettable but I think the title track is fantastic and "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is a stunning cover.

Album Rating: 3.5

So the mix of this album on Spotify was just changed and the music sounds so much better. But for some reason “Oh No!” is now an instrumental…

Album Rating: 3.2

Oh No! is a fucking chune, 20 minute track is a fucking chore

Album Rating: 4.0

Man, Joan in the Garden might be a tad overlong, but it's my favorite track here by a decent margin and has a chance at least a top 25 song in their discog for me

Album Rating: 3.5

Joan best song. We've heard all the other stuff before and that's fine but Joan is special.



Also review is perfect.

Album Rating: 4.0

Thanks Egarran!

Album Rating: 3.2

I'll admit my impression of Joan was probably coloured by the fact that I was blasting it to the neighbourhood as I was slogging away working in the backyard, will be sure to contemplate it less publically next time. Had they leaned into that pop punkish angle before? I'd only heard singles before this album. Love a lot of their lyrics.

And ye, good review Sunny ol chap

Album Rating: 3.5

I wanted to find out what The Black Maria was - the lyrics make it sound like some kind of supernatural fascist movement - and I'm still not sure, but I did learn of the 70's Marvel supervillian Black Mariah who is a morbidly obese african american drug lady whose power is that she can hit people really hard.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mariah_(comics)

Album Rating: 4.0

"you sit on the hayrake and me on the plow"

shouldn't it be "and i on the plow"? or is this some rhetoric device i'm not familiar with?

Album Rating: 3.5

You sit me on the plow ^^

Album Rating: 3.0

Maybe this puts me in a specific category of Decemberists fan, and I've only engaged with a few of their albums, but Joan in the Garden is 10x better than everything here. The Reapers comes closest but too much of this feels like it's lacking Terrible/Beautiful's lush atmospheres and also the emotional dynamics of the older stuff

Album Rating: 4.0

yeah, "joan" is probably the best song of the year for me. the rest doesn't really stack up, but there's great stuff here for sure (burial ground, the reapers, long white veil, william fitzwilliam, the black mariah)

Album Rating: 3.0

i love this band deeply but i get bored whenever i try to listen to this again : (



the music is usually pretty good but the lyrics often feel uninspired



for some reason pretty much the only song that stuck with me is Tell Me What's on Your Mind

Album Rating: 3.5

Colin's stretched himself thin with all the writing he's done. He sticks to the same general themes, settings, and characters in his music and novels. It's all variations on a theme.

Album Rating: 3.0

Fair enough

As much as I love the world of early Decemberists albums, when it comes to what they've put out in the last fifteen years, I prefer Meloy's more personal writing on King is Dead and What a Terrible World (or even 'All I Want is You' on this one) to songs like 'Oh No' or 'Long White Veil', although I appreciate both of those songs musically. I might be a little too harsh, idk - I don't mind the lyrics of 'Burial Ground' and 'The Reapers'

I have yet to read any of his books though. I really enjoyed the one book I've read by his sister Maile Meloy

Album Rating: 3.5

They're very good middle-grade novels with a lot of anthropomorphic characters and a strictly Portland/northwest vibe. Laika is developing a stop-motion film for the series if I'm not mistaken (same folks who did Coraline and stuff).