The Decemberists offer free tune from The Hazards of Love

It's no secret that The Decemberists' upcoming album, The Hazards of Love, is due out on March 24th, and while the band have recently released six tunes with their Always the Bridesmaid series, many of us have been waiting eagerly for a taste of their new record. Today, the Decemberists are making "The Rake's Song" available to download from their website, all you have to do is sign up for their email list. It's up there with the group's darker, stranger material, the bone-chilling tale of a man who found the raising of three children by himself a bit too restricting.

Decemberists.com - Download "The Rake's Song"


The Hazards of Love is something of a folk opera that tells the tale of a woman named Margaret and a host of twisted characters played (sung) by Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden, My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Robyn Hitchcock and the Spinanes' Rebecca Gates. The album combines a variety of genres from folk to heavy metal, which Colin Meloy explains in this way:

“There’s an odd bond between the music of the British folk revival and classic metal,” says Meloy. “A natural connection between, like, Fairport Convention and Black Sabbath – of course, Sandy Denny from Fairport even sang with Led Zeppelin on ‘The Battle of Evermore.’ I think there’s a shared sense of narrative and ambience, of moving beyond the first person in your writing. And I thought it would be interesting to mess around with that.”


Track List:

1. Prelude
2. The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone)
3. A Bower Scene
4. Won’t Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
5. The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)
6. The Queen’s Approach
7. Isn’t it a Lovely Night?
8. The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid
9. An Interlude
10. The Rake’s Song
11. The Abduction of Margaret
12. The Queen’s Rebuke / The Crossing
13. Annan Water
14. Margaret in Captivity
15. The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)
16. The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)
17. The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned