I'll Be Your Girl (studio album) by The Decemberists
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The Decemberists bestography
I'll Be Your Girl is ranked 8th best out of 17 albums by The Decemberists on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The Decemberists is The Crane Wife which is ranked number 776 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 2,274.
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I'll Be Your Girl track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 73 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
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I'll Be Your Girl ratings

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Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 71 ratings for this album.
Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
55/100 ![]() | 06/10/2025 15:35 | ![]() | ![]() | 74/100 |
75/100 ![]() | 01/21/2025 23:38 | juanr1096 | ![]() | 78/100 |
80/100 ![]() | 07/06/2024 18:52 | PapaShiz86 | ![]() | 79/100 |
70/100 ![]() | 06/23/2024 19:30 | LosWochos | ![]() | 75/100 |
75/100 ![]() | 11/12/2022 12:30 | TonySayers61 | ![]() | 64/100 |
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This album has a Bayesian average rating of 69.8/100, a mean average of 69.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 69.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 12.2.
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Their worst album by a mile.
This album is mostly missing the poetic lyrics and wonderful storytelling that I love so much with the Decemberists. However they experiment musically with a lot of new sounds here and although it was hit and miss for me, overall it was a pretty good listening experience.
The first three songs were strong, and I think my favorite track here is Rusalka. As others have noted, that song would not be out of place at all on Hazards of Love. Has a prog folk feel to it.

Lets be honest , 'I'll Be Your Girl' is pretty disappointing and probably their worst release and so it was with some hesitation I checked out a new EP 'Travelling On' from The Decemberists which came out towards the end of 2018 and is a sharp twenty-one minutes of songs that were recorded during the I’ll Be Your Girl sessions but never quite found a home on the album those sessions produced.
There are some okay moments on this EP and it gives an opportunity fix 'I'll Be Your Girl' and make it a better album
Out: the simply terrible 3 some that come consecutively late in the album starting with the awful "Everything Is Awful" , followed by "Suckers Punch" and the excruciating "We All Die Young"
In from 'Travelling On' EP: the rather good "Down On The Knuckle" , the ok "I Will Not Say Your Name" and the not necessarily good "Travelling On" but included as ANYTHING is better than "We All Die Young"
Note: EP track 4 "Midlist Author" is poor
Leaving the following improved tracks and re-ordered "I'll Be Your Girl" Mark II
(1) Down On The Knuckle
(2) Severed
(3) Starwatcher
(4) Cutting Stone
(5) Once In My Life
(6) I Will Not Say Your Name
(7) Tripping Along
(8) Your Ghost
(9) Rusalka, Rusalka/Wild Rushes
(10) I'll Be Your Girl
(11) Travelling On
Better ?
Yep
This is - Much to my surprise - turning into becoming my favourite Decemberists LP! i liked them all the way but they were turning into R.E.M. and now this: so much fun.

I like this album quite a bit. it's certainly not very standard for the Decemberists. In fact, if you told me that this was an unearthed Colin Meloy synth-pop project from 1985 I wouldn't be all that surprised. "Once In My Life" in fact reminds me of Talk Talk's 1984 hit "It's My Life" (partly because of titular similarity, but mostly because of a vaguely similar sounding synth lead and groove). There is a lot of variety here though; Severed, Sucker's Prayer, and Everything is Awful are my other favorites on the album, and all seem to present a distinctly different sound.
85/100 (Very Good)
Really underwhelming. I like the Decemberists but this seems half done. Some of the songs and lyrics are almost childish.

I've listened to this album 4 times wire to wire and have a good grip on its contents
Firstly declaration time , I am a huge Decemberist fan and have been looking forward to this release for some time
Secondly its a huge disappointment and doesn't work as a whole
The Good ? The opening 6 tracks are pretty good with the single 'Severed' and 'Starwatcher' shining bright , along with 'Your Ghost ' . Whilst 2nd to last track 'Rusalka, Rusalka / Wild Rushes' evokes memories of "Hazards Of Love " in the most positive of ways
The Bad ? Closer 'I'll Be Your Girl' is a tame end to the album unfortunately , which brings us to ...
The Ugly ? Oh boy these tracks really blow - 'Everything Is Awful' truly is awful , as is 'Suckers Prayer ' and the completely irritating ' We All Die Young'
So what does that leave us with ? 7 tracks that are better than good , 1 average track and 3 tracks that 100% suck . Based on that the album gets a pass but with a huge sad face of disappointment . I'll be compiling this album into a 7 track playlist minus the 4 offending tracks
7 out of 11 is 63% and that is my score
63 Disappointments Out Of 100
Easily one of my favorite bands. Easily their weakest album. I thought their last one was their weakest, but this one was far worse. It feels like they didn't even try.
After 4 listens, this is one of my least favorite Decemberists albums. However, there are excellent tracks on here such as Once in my Life, Everything Is Awful, Suckers Prayer, and Rusalka. I also quite enjoy the title track. The other tracks I can do without. It’s not awful but it’s not up there with albums such as The Crane Wife.
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