so the decemberists have taken an even further leap into obscure nonsense about cranes, sparrows, and other romantically idealized birds. im thinking that "look for me on the .....blah blah blah sun drenched sparrow breast" im not quite sure...but that shit is awesome. it makes me feel like im walking through the woods twirling one of those sticks with a big long flag they use in the olympics, and all of a sudden a beautiful sun drenched sparrow stops to say hello and i feel the love of lovers gone. ahhhhhhh. beautiful. basically its about this guy that fucks birds and then exploits them for money and realizes the error of his ways. ive done that myself. not the fucking a bird part, but have realized the error of my ways. well not really, ive tricked myself into thinking ive realized the error of my ways only to find that my new resolution was just another error in my ways. oh life, colin melloy, straighten it out for me. and he does. he conveys a sense of lost love at his own hands instead of the typical "poor me" found in so many songs sang of love. tracks 3, 6, 8,9 and 10 are the stand out tracks of the album. you may know them as the yankee bayonet, when the war came, summersong, the crane wife 1 and 2, and sons and daughters. oh, and shankill butchers is a fucking jewel. the reality of it is that its another one of those albums that takes a good long listening to. but as you do you see a more creative, and deeper decemberists crawling out of the typical "indie" hole that everyone has been dying to hurl themselves into. shades of crosby stills and nash shine out of this album, which i was quite happy to hear. my mom even loves it. she has also become a huge okkervil river fan...which is another post...because theyre the best ever right now. so to conclude, collin melloy, birds and battles, once again pull it off.