NEW ALBUMS
THE DECEMBERISTS
As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
Intellectual Oregonians cram two decades of tricks into four-sided ninth LP.
By Lisa-Marie Ferla
HOLLYANDRES
YABB/THIRTY TIGERS
8/10
IT’S a bold statement, 24 years into your career, to label an album your band’s best, as Colin Meloy, the songwriter behind The Decemberists, has described As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again. Assembled with the vinyl revival in mind –fitting across four “sides”, each with adistinct sonic feel –it’s an album that riffs on over two decades’ worth of operatic literary references, shape-shifting indie-folk whimsy and prog-rock experimentation, offering sonic easter eggs to longterm fans while both charming and bamboozling newcomers to their world.