Her Majesty The Decemberists (studio album) by The Decemberists

I don't know why, when you look at how all their records are ranked, why this one (at 126 for the year) is so much lower than Castaways and Cutouts(80-something that year.) While neither are their best, I'd say this one is a step forward for them, telling interesting stories without marginalizing musicianship. It felt like a record written by more experienced songwriters.

A very consistent record. Solid solid solid, no major ebbs & flows or fluctuations in track quality. enjoyable listen from time to time. MEZ

From babyBlueSedan 02/04/2014 16:21

There are no standout songs, but that works to the album's advantage. On other Decemberists albums, there's normally one or two songs that really stand out and point out the weaknesses in other songs. But this one's a consistently good, enjoyable listen.

While I find nothing spectacular on the album besides maybe "Billy Liar", Her Majesty has a long line of consistently decent songs.

From paladisiac 12/11/2011 03:01

It lumbers out literally with a mostly-uninteresting "shanty for the arethusa", but after that, there's no let up. "billy liar" is a jaunty farce starting "Billy Liar's got his hands in his pockets / Staring over at the neighbor's, knickers down." Sarcastic ode "los angeles, i'm yours" backhandedly offers "A plaintive melody / Truncated symphony / An ocean’s garbled vomit on the shore, / Los Angeles, I’m yours", an otherwise elegant song, one of the highlights on the album along with "billy liar", "the bachelor and the bride", "the soldiering life", "red right ankle" and "the chimbley sweep". "the bachelor and the bride" is one of many decemberists songs of doomed love (colin sings "And his fingers are they telling / Of the barren of her belly / And his callouses cure her furrowed brow / Even now" before boxing the bride-to-be's ears). "the soldiering life" is just fun to sing along with, with its "bombazine dolls" and "You were a brickbat, a bowery tuff, so rough / They culled you from a cartoon / Pulled out of your pantaloons." "blazing away" to its war-time finale. The following song earnestly starts "This is the story of your red right ankle / And how it came to meet your leg / And how the muscle, bone, and sinews tangled / And how the skin was softly shed " over acoustic guitar, a love song in some awkward-geek-boy-sorta-way. "the chimbley sweep" tells the story of "a poor and wretched boy" and sounds like a mary poppins's lawrence welk band -- an ultra-literate, accordion-wielding weird al song on some askew level -- which is too much fun to take seriously "song for myla goldberg" is marching fun while "the gymnast, high above the ground" takes patience but pays off at the chorus.