The Decemberists have revealed the tracklisting and release date for their new album The Hazards of Love.
The LP, which frontman Colin Meloy told Rolling Stone magazine “was initially conceived as a musical”, will be released in the UK on 23rd March. Meloy added: “Everyone’s going to call it a rock opera, I’ve just got to come to terms with that.”
The album is a continuous narrative about a woman named Margaret, her lover William, a forest queen and a villainous rake. Sounds like a rock opera to FFS.
The follow-up to 2006’s The Crane Wife features guest vocals from Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden.
The tracklisting is as follows:
1. Prelude
2. The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone)
3. A Bower Scene
4. Won’t Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
5. The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)
6. The Queen’s Approach
7. Isn’t it a Lovely Night?
8. The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid
9. An Interlude
10. The Rake’s Song
11. The Abduction of Margaret
12. The Queen’s Rebuke / The Crossing
13. Annan Water
14. Margaret in Captivity
15. The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)
16. The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)
17. The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)
The Decemberists have also released a series of singles entitled Always the Bridesmaid consisting of songs that didn’t fit with the narrative of The Hazards of Love. It is available from their website and from Rough Trade.
Words: Lynn Roberts