I Can Kill You With My Brain

I gave The Hazards of Love, the new album from The Decemberists, a second spin yesterday afternoon and now I need to retract something I said in yesterday’s Gut Reaction Review of it.  That’s why it’s called a Gut Reaction Review, right folks?

In the GRR of the album, I stated that the last few songs were a bit slower than I expected, which lead to me daydreaming during them.  While I may have been daydreaming during them, it’s not the fault of the songs.  While the very final track is a slower number, the two before it are anything but that.  Both of those songs move along at a pretty good pace and have some toe-tapping riffs in them.  In fact, “The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)” has a wonderful sing-along version of the album’s “chorus” as sung by a children’s choir and backed by some sparse electronic sounds.  You can’t help but be singing and nodding along with it.  In hind-sight, I think I was distracted by the increased traffic as I approached my office and was not paying close attention to the music.  I mistakenly attributed this lack of interest to the style of the last few songs, but that’s clearly not the case.  The album finishes very strong.