What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World
by The Decemberists

From zdwyatt TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/26/2015 20:21 | #132682 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This is classic Decemberists! Song topics include children and the loss thereof, historical military, summer vs. winter, sailing, and, of course, lust. And there's plenty of vocabulary, if that's your thing. In addition to big words you already know (obverse, condescend, misbegotten) there's also prevaricate, sibylline, eidolon, and mistral. Most importantly, these are catchy songs. What's not to like?

This album for me is something that has its equal amounts of good and bad moments. Some songs I really enjoy, some songs I prefer to skip (even finding them annoying), while others rest in between.

I think that the Decemberists are on a path that they believe is the right direction for them to go. This track being away from the past ambitions of "The Crane Wife", which may be a disappointment to a large amount of their fans.

This album felt loosely thrown together, and if certain poor songs were replaced with those that matched ones such as "The Lake Song" or "12-17-12", then I would see this a much greater album than what it ended up being. The Decemberists have potential, showed some potential, however did not display enough to prove that they have changed for the better.

From babyBlueSedan TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/23/2015 01:59 | #132267 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This album, like The King is Dead, is not a bad album. But like The King is Dead, it features none of the qualities that made me love the Decemberists. I loved the fairy tales and stories of past times, I loved the varied song structures, but most of all I loved the many syllable words and rhymes (like rhyming "aspirations" with "complications"). This is a very stripped down album, and even when Meloy tries to bring back some of his old timey vocab ("tween my finger and my thumb") it just sounds silly. As I've seen written many times before, you'll love this if you're a new fan of the band, but old fans will probably feel let down.

From Brad1770 TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/13/2017 08:52 | #203050 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This was the first Decemberists album that truly resonated with me

This was my number 1 album for 2015 (daylight number 2 )

This album made me delve deep into The Decemberist back catalogue ( I am now a huge Decemberist fan)

This album came along at a very special time in my life and whenever I listen to it I’m transported back to that magical period

This album as I write this in 2020 is now 5 years post release and sounds as good today as it did in 2015

This album has been added to my top 100 All Time Album list

This might be the band's best album yet. An impressive combination of that signature quirk and lyrical complexity along with undeniable hooks. It's the type of album that gets better with every listen, in particular because several of the best tracks take some significant unpacking. Sure, it may lack some of the creativity of Picaresque or The Crane Wife, but it makes up for it with soaring, beautiful melodies as strong as the band has produced yet.