5 Records with The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy

After a six-year break, The Decemberists, a critically acclaimed mainstay in modern folk, have returned with a sprawling new record, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again. It is, in frontman Colin Meloy’s opinion, the band’s most essential record.

Both longer and more accessible than any of the group’s previous releases, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again begins with 12 punchy, empathic tales before culminating with the 19-minute epic, “Joan in the Garden.”

Part of what sets The Decemberists apart is a deep respect and knowledge of the genre. Each record uses songwriting to tell winding historical stories and folklore tales, sometimes ancient, sometimes contemporary, in a way that seems of another time.

Meloy is a student of the genre, with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of British folk timelines and Anne Briggs pressings (of which he speculates that he may have single-handedly driven the prices up years ago). 

In the days before As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, Meloy shared a list of the records that he’s had in rotation. Unsurprisingly, it’s a collection of overlooked folk gems.

“This record, Howl, just came out in March. It’s mainly sung in Cornish, and the music is dark folk. I don’t know what she’s singing about but it sounds like ancient things.

“I feel like [this record] connects to the British folk revival, maybe the second or third wave from the ’50s and ’60s. I feel like she owes something to that music, but, also, it seems grounded in general ’60s and ’70s psychedelia like The Velvet Underground. 

“I randomly came across this on Folk Radio UK, now KLOF. They make these mixtapes on Mixcloud that I started listening to and discovering great, contemporary British folk music.

“I think something’s happening in England, Ireland, and Scotland that feels like another folk revival. But, in some ways, it’s infused with an appreciation of free Roman England’s ancient pagan traditions that connect to the history of the place.”

“As far as I can tell, this album is the same as Shriek. Maybe it’s a remaster, but Wye Oak has tacked on these orchestral versions of some of the songs. I don’t think they improve the songs, but it’s a reminder of what a great record the original is.

“In regards to general pop songcraft between Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, I think they are masters that don’t get their due. There’s some super infectious stuff that’s happening on this record. It’s almost like there’s some Trevor Horn-ish kind of production, like nods to the ’80s and ’90s.”

“This release was a complete surprise to me. There’s so little Anne Briggs material out there. So it was really exciting to see not only was there new material from Anne Briggs on Earth, but it was stuff from the era of her first LP, which I think is best. 

“Anne Briggs sounds like a real person performing, a real person singing, in a way that I don’t think we would see again until punk DIY. [Her first LP] is so rough around the corners, its nearly punk. I never thought that I would hear more Anne Briggs from that era and here we are – we have them.”

“I didn’t know anything about Cara Beth Satalino until she was on one of those KLOF mixtapes with a song called “Wheel Song.” It was one of the best songs I’d heard in a long time, just from how it’s written and the story it explores. It’s about somebody mourning the fact that they sold their grandfather’s guitar when they needed rent money and then drawing out the lesson of regret, desire, and circumstances. 

“From a song craft standpoint, what happens in that three-and-a-half minute-long song? I don’t know. It’s like a Flannery O’Connor short story. It turns out the rest of the record is great and has that same sensibility. There’s a kind of a brave vulnerability running throughout all of her songs.”