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You may have already heard the first single from the album, “Down by the Water,” but The Decemberists new record is finally out today. And it very well might be one of their best.

While 2009’s Hazards of Love was a concept album featuring the Portland band’s darkest sounds, The King is Dead is the most Americana-influenced work of the Decemberists catalog. “All Arise!” even features some fiddle work and you can hear Gillian Welch’s vocals on “Down by the Water.”

But as a whole the album — while not holding to the sort of concept approach found on The Decemberists’ two prior records — is as strong as anything they’ve done in the past.

Give a listen to the album in its entirety right here via NPR.

This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2011.

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The Decemberists Release New Album, “The King is Dead,” Today

by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon
January 18, 2011

<h1>The Decemberists Release New Album, “The King is Dead,” Today</h1> <p class="byline">by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />January 18, 2011</p> <p>You may have already heard the first single from the album, "Down by the Water," but <a href="http://www.decemberists.com/" target="_blank">The Decemberists</a> new record is finally out today. And it very well might be one of their best.</p> <p>While 2009's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hazards-Love-Decemberists/dp/B001LK1LA6" target="_blank"><em>Hazards of Love</em></a> was a concept album featuring the Portland band's darkest sounds, <em>The King is Dead</em> is the most Americana-influenced work of the Decemberists catalog. "All Arise!" even features some fiddle work and you can hear Gillian Welch's vocals on "Down by the Water."</p> <p>But as a whole the album -- while not holding to the sort of concept approach found on The Decemberists' two prior records -- is as strong as anything they've done in the past.</p> <p><a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/01/16/132436422/first-listen-the-decemberists-the-king-is-dead#playlist" target="_blank">Give a listen to the album in its entirety right here via NPR.</a></p> <p><object><em>You need to use a flashplayer enabled browser in order to view this video</em></object></p> <p> </p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> http://www.youtube.com/v/Hh50rpjU1iY&amp;feature=related </div> </figure> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/the-decemberists-release-new-album-the-king-is-dead-today-2136979/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=20021&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/the-decemberists-release-new-album-the-king-is-dead-today-2136979/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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